HOLLO'S 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


THE  ROLLO  SERIES 


18    COMPOSED     OF     FOURTEEN    VOLUMES,    VIZ 


Rollo  Learning:  to  Talk. 
Rollo  Learning  to  Read. 
Rollo  at  Work. 
Rollo  at  Play. 
Rollo  ul  School. 
Hollo's  Vacation. 
Rollo's  Experiments. 


5  Rollo's  Museum 

'  Rollo's  Travels. 

i  Rollo's  Correspondence. 

-;  Hollo's  Philosophy— Water. 

\  Roilo's  Philosophy— Air. 

<  Rollo's  Philosophy— Fire. 

I  Roilo's  Philosophy— Sky. 


A      NEW     EDITION,    REVISED     BY    THE    AUTHOR 


BOSTON: 
PHILLIPS,   SAMPSON,   AND    COMPANY. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  Year  1855,  by 

PHILLIPS,  SAMPSON,  &  CO., 
In  Bit  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachus 


iooo 


NOTICE. 


THIS  volume  constitutes  the  tenth  in 
the  history  of  Rollo,  and  completes  the 
series,  so  far  as  at  present  contemplated. 
The  writer  may,  perhaps,  carry  forward, 
from  time  to  time,  the  history  of  Jonas, 
and  there  Hollo  may  himself  occasionally 
appear.  One  volume,  entitled  JONAS'S 
STORIES,  has  already  been  issued  ;  an 
other,  JONAS'S  LAW,  intended  to  exhibit 
the  nature  of  rights  and  obligations 
among  boys,  and  the  principles  on  which 
their  disputes  are  to  be  settled,  may  fol 
low  soon.  Except  so  far  as  Rollo  may 
appear,  as  a  secondary  personage  in  these 
sketches  of  Jonas's  history,  our  readers 
will  now  take  leave  of  him,  at  least  for  a 
long  time  to  come. 

941 


CONTENTS. 


Page 
HOLLO'S   COBRESPONDENCE 7 

CRITICISM 18 

A  CHAPTER  OF  LETTERS 4] 

THE  SUSPENSION 60 

SCHOOL  AT   HOME 68 

STUDY   HOURS  AND  PLAY   HOURS fe3 

MORE    LETTERS 92 

AN  EXPEDITION 106 

THE   TRAVELLERS 117 

THE  TURCO  STORY 130 

HYDRAULICS 139 

THE   RETURN 157 

CHARLES 169 

ADVICE...  ,.  183 


ROLLO'S   CORRESPONDENCE. 


ONE  day,  when  Rollo  was  about  seven  or 
eight  years  old,  he  was  sick.  He  was  not 
very  sick  ;  but  he  was  so  sick  that  he  had 
to  keep  in  his  bed  almost  all  the  day.  It 
was  winter,  and  his  mother  had  moved  his 
little  trundle-bed  out  before  the  fire,  so  that 
he  might  be  comfortable. 

Rollo  got  better  in  the  course  of  the  day ; 
his  father  gave  him  some  medicine  in  the 
morning,  and  in  the  afternoon  he  was  much 
better.  So  his  little  brother  Nathan  came  in 
to  play  with  him.  He  brought  his  blocks, 
and  spread  them  all  out  upon  Rollo's  bed. 
Rollo  sat  up  in  his  bed,  and  played  with 
them. 

But  he  could  not  b  Jld  very  well  :  the 
bed  was  so  soft  and  uneven. 

"  Mother,"  said  Rollo,  "  may  I  get  up  ?  " 

"  I  am  afraid  you  are  not  quite  well 
enough,"  said  his  mother. 


S  HOLLO'S  CORRESPONDENCE. 

"Yes,  mother,"  said  Hollo,  "1  feel  a 
great  deal  better  ; — and  we  can't  build  upon 
the  bed,  for  we  have  not  got  a  good  founda 
tion.  Nobody  can  build  without  a  good 
foundation." 

"  O,  I  can  get  you  a  foundation,"  said  his 
mother.  She  had  been  sitting  all  this  time 
at  her  work-table,  by  the  side  of  the  fire, 
sewing.  She  was  very  busy.  She,  how 
ever,  put  down  her  work,  and  went  down 
stairs  to  get  Rollo  and  Nathan  a  foundation. 

Presently  she  came  back  with  a  square 
board  in  her  hand. 

"  There,"  she  said,  as  she  brought  the 
board  to  Rollo,  and  placed  it  down  before 
him,  evenly,  upon  the  bed.  "  There,  now 
you  can  build." 

She  left  Rollo  and  Nathan  then,  and  went 
back  to  her  work.  They  began  to  build  a 
powder-house.  Rollo  said  that  they  would 
play  that  it  was  a  powder-house,  full  of  pow 
der,  and  that  fire  caught  to  the  powder,  and 
so  the  powder-house  b1  .  w  up.  When  he  was 
ready  for  the  explcK.un,  he  and  Nathan  were 
to  knock  down  the  powder-house  and  scatter 
the  blocks  about,  and  say,  '  Bang.' 

They  played   this  for   a.  little  while,  but 


ROLLO'S    CORRESPONDENCE.  9 

"Rollo  was  too  feeble  to  enjoy  such  a  play 
long.  The  board  troubled  him,  for  it  would 
riot  lie  steadily  upon  the  bed.  Nathan  was 
rather  restless,  and  sometimes,  just  as  they 
had  got  a  building  half  done,  he  would  sud 
denly  move  his  position,  and  tumble  it  all 
down.  This  worried  Rollo  ;  his  head  felt 
weak  and  giddy,  and  at  length  he  laid  it 
down  upon  his  pillow,  and  shut  up  his  eyes. 
Nathan  placed  the  board  again  in  an  even 
position,  and  began  to  build  by  himself. 

As  he  kept  talking  all  the  time,  he  dis 
turbed  Rollo,  and  Rollo  said, 

"  Nathan,  I  wish  you  would  move  your 
blocks  off  my  bed." 

"  No,"  said  Nathan,  "for  then  my  house 
will  tumble  down." 

So  Nathan  went  on  building  his  powder- 
house,  talking  to  himself  all  the  time. 

"O  dear  me,"  said  Rollo,  "I  wish  he 
would  go  aw^y." 

But  Nathan,  intent  on  building  his  pow 
der-house,  did  not  think  of  the  inconvenience 
he  was  occasioning  to  his  sick  brother.  And 
Rollo's  mother,  being  busy  with  her  sewing, 
did  not  notice  what  the  children  said. 

"  Now  my  powder-house  is  going  to  bo 


10  ROI.LO'S    CORRESPONDENCE. 

struck  with  lightning,"  said  Nathan.  "  Look, 
Hollo,  look  ;  if  you  want  to  see  the  lightning 
blow  up." 

"  No,"  said  Rollo,  moving  his  head  a  little 
farther  off,  upon  his  pillow,  "  no,  I  am  tired  ; 
I  don't  want  to  see." 

"  Look,  Rollo,  look  quick,"  said  Nathan. 

"  O  dear  me,"  said  Rollo,  "  what  a 
noise !  " 

Just  then  the  instant  arrived  for  Nathan's 
explosion.  With  a  sudden  dash  of  his  hand 
he  knocked  down  his  powder-house ;  the 
bricks  flew  around  the  bed,  and  one  of  them 
fell  upon  Rollo,  and  struck  him  upon  the 
cheek.  It  hit  him  just  upon  the  hard,  bony 
place,  a  little  below  the  eye. 

"O  Rollo!"  said  Nathan,  '( I  did  not 
mean  to  hurt  you." 

Rollo  did  not  answer,  but  his  face  assumed 
an  expression  of  pain,  and  the  tears  began 
to  come  into  his  eyes.  Nathan  put  his  little, 
soft  hand  over  the  place,  and  begged  Rollo 
not  to  cry.  Rollo,  however,  turned  his  face 
over,  and  moved  away,  and  his  cheek  was 
hid  under  the  bed-clothes.  He  did  not  cry 
aloud,  but  he  sobbed  a  little,  so  that  his 
mother  heard  him. 


11 


He  was  not  hurt  much,  after  all.  If  he 
had  been  well,  he  would  not  have  regarded 
it  a  moment.  But  he  was  feeble  and  ten 
der,  arid  a  very  little  suffering,  under  such 
circumstances,  was  more  than  he  could  bear. 

His  mother  came  and  wiped  away  his 
tears  ;  and  she  told  Nathan  that  he  had  better 
put  his  blocks  away.  Nathan  was  unwill 
ing.  He  said  that  he  would  not  build  any 
more  powder-houses  ;  —  he  was  only  going 
to  build  a  steamboat. 

"  But  the  steamboat  may  blow  up  too," 
said  his  mother. 

Nathan  assured  her  positively  that  his 
steamboat  should  not  blow  up  ;  he  would 
take  special  care  of  it 

"  No,  I  had  rather  you  would  not  build 
any  more,  now,"  said  his  mother.  "  Be 
sides,  Dorothy  is  going  to  bake  some  rolls 
for  supper,  and  if  you  would  like  it,  you 
may  go  down  and  ask  her  to  give  you  a 
small  piece  of  dough,  and  let  you  make  a 
little  cake." 

Nathan  liked  this  plan  very  much.  So 
he  put  his  blocks  in  their  place,  and  away 
he  went  to  make  his  cake  with  Dorothy. 

Rollo's    mother    then    placed    her    little 


12  HOLLO'S  CORRESPONDENCE. 

patient  comfortably  in  bed,  and  smoothed 
the  bed-clothes  around  him.  She  spoke 
soothingly  to  him,  and  recommended  to  him 
to  go  to  sleep  ;  and  then  she  returned  to  her 
work. 

After  a  short  time,  Rollo  asked  again  to 
get  up.  He  was  tired,  he  said,  of  lying  in 
his  trundle-bed.  His  mother  was  somewhat 
in  doubt  about  it,  but  on  the  whole  con 
cluded,  that  perhaps  he  would  sleep  better 
during  the  night  if  he  should  get  up  and 
have  his  bed  made.  She  accordingly  con 
sented.  She  took  him  up  gently,  bathed 
his  face  and  hands,  combed  his  hair,  dressed 
him,  and  put  him  in  his  little  rocking-chaii 
before  the  fire.  Then  she  brought  a  little 
table,  which  Rollo  had  to  play  with,  before 
him.  It  was  just  high  enough  for  him  to 
sit  to  it,  in  his  little  chair.  Then  she  made 
up  his  bed,  arid  trundled  it  away,  under  the 
great  bed,  out  of  sight. 

"  Now,  Rollo,"  said  she,  "  I  am  going  to 
get  you  some  supper." 

So  his  mother  went  down  stairs,  and  in 
about  a  quarter  of  an  hour  she  returned  with 
some  toast,  and  a  cup  of  "  milk  tea,"  as  she 
called  it.  It  was  made  with  milk  and  hot 


ROLLCTS    CORRESPONDENCE.  13 

water,  and  well  sweetened  with  loaf  sugar, 
Hollo  liked  milk  tea  very  much. 

After  Rollo  had  eaten  his  toast  and  drank 
his  tea,  he  wanted  a  pencil  and  paper  to 
draw.  His  mother  got  them  for  him,  and 
then  she  returned  to  her  work.  Rollo  did 
not  like  drawing,  very  long.  He  tried  a 
little  while,  bat  he  did  not  seem  to  succeed 
very  well  ;  and  at  last  he  put  his  pencil 
down,  and  laid  his  head  back  against  his 
chair,  and  sighed. 

"  What  is  the  matter,  Rollo  ? "  asked  his 
mother. 

"  I  can't  draw  very  well,"  said  Rollo. 

"  Why  not  ?  "  inquired  his  mother. 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  Rollo  ;  "  I  am  too 
tired." 

His  mother  looked  at  him,  and  saw  that 
his  cheek  was  flushed,  and  he  looked  rest 
less  and  uncomfortable.  She  was  afraid 
that  he  had  been  exerting  himself  too  much. 
So  she  told  him  she  thought  he  was  not 
we.",  enough  to  draw,  and  that  he  had  better 
put  his  drawings  away,  and  go  to  bed  again. 

Rollo  did  not  answer,  but  immediately 
began  to  put  up  his  paper  and  pencils.  His 
mother  was  very  glad  to  see  him  complying 
2 


14  HOLLO'S  CORRESPONDENCE. 

so  readily  with  her  suggestions,  but  on  look 
ing  at  him  again,  she  saw  the  tears  flowing 
fast  from  his  eyes.  They  were,  however, 
tears  of  disappointment  and  sorrow,  not  of 
vexation.  She  pitied  him,  and  laying  down 
her  work,  she  determined  to  do  something  to 
soothe  and  comfort  him.  She  went  and 
helped  him  put  his  drawing  implements 
away,  and  then  she  took  him  up  in  her  lap 
p.nd  began  to  rock  him. 

"  Now,  Rollo,  what  can  I  do  for  yo'i .;  " 
said  she. 

"  I  don't  know,  mother,"  s^.id  Rollo ; 
;c  only  I  wish  you  would  draw  me  some 
pictures  ;  — or  else  tell  me  a  story." 

"  Well,  I  will  tell  you  a  story.  I  will 
put  you  back  again  comfortably  in  bed,  and 
Shen  I  will  tell  yo'i  a  story." 

Rollo  assented  to  this  ;  his  trundle-bed 
was  drawn  out,  and  he  was  put  into  it.  It 
was  soft  and  smooth,  and  he  was  glad,  on 
the  whole,  to  get  his  cheek  upon  the  pillow 
again. 

His  mother  lighted  a  lamp,  —  for  it  was 
beginning  to  be  dark, — and  then  returned  to 
her  work,  by  the  side  of  the  fire,  and  began 
to  tell  Rollo  a  story  about  a  boy  who  was 


ROLLO'S    CORRESPONDENCE.  15 

learning  to  ride  on  horseback,  and  whose 
horse  ran  away  with  him  into  a  river  to 
drink.  Rollo  listened  with  great  interest  for 
a  time,  and  then  gradually  fell  asleep. 

The  next  thing  that  he  knew  was,  that  he 
was  waking  up.  The  air  felt  cool  upon  his 
cheek.  He  raised  his  head  and  looked 
around.  It  was  bright  daylight.  There  was 
no  fire  in  the  fireplace,  and  his  mother  was 
no  where  to  be  seen.  He  knew  it  was 
morning,  and  supposed  that  his  father  and 
mother  had  gone  down  stairs. 

His  eye  soon  fell  upon  his  little  chair, 
which  was  placed  close  to  his  trundle-bed ; 
and  in  it  was  a  pile  of  books,  with  a  letter 
upon  the  top  of  them,  —  so  placed  as  to  pre 
sent  the  back  of  the  letter,  which  contained 
the  address,  distinctly  to  his  view.  He  saw 
the  word  ROLLO  written  very  legibly  upon 
it.  He  knew  that,  it  must  be  a  letter  to  him. 
He  thought  his  mother  wrote  it.  He  took 
it,  and  opened  it,  and  read  as  follows  :  — 

"  At  my  Work-Table,  Wednesday  Evening. 

"  Dear  Rollo, 

"  You  have  gone  to  sleep,  and  can  no 
more  hear  my  stories  ;  so  I  have  concluded 
to  write  you  a  little  letter. 


16  ROLLO'S    CORRESPONDENCE. 

"  Your  father  came  home  a  few  minutes 
ago.  He  came  to  your  trundle-bed,  and  said 
he  was  glad  to  find  that  you  were  asleep. 
He  felt  of  your  pulse,  and  of  your  cheek,  and 
said  he  thought  you  were  a  great  deal  better. 
He  hoped  you  would  have  a  good  night,  and 
be  well  in  the  morning. 

"  Nathan  has  just  come  in  with  his  cake. 
He  baked  it  on  the  kitchen  hearth,  covering 
it  over  with  ashes.  Dorothy  told  him  to  do 
it  so.  He  thought  the  ashes  would  stick  to 
it,  but  it  did  not  much,  and  she  brushed  it 
clean  for  him,  by  shaking  it  in  a  cloth,  when 
it  was  done.  He  is  keeping  a  piece  of  it  for 
you. 

"  There  is  one  advantage  in  being  sick,  as 
you  have  been.  We  learn  by  experience 
how  people  feel  when  they  are  sick,  and  how 
they  like  very  quiet  and  gentle  treatment, 
and  kind,  soothing  words.  Thanny  does  not 
know,  but  I  do,  for  I  have  been  sick  a  great 
many  times.  I  suppose  that  if  your  father, 
or  myself,  or  Thanny  should  be  sick  now, 
you  would  know  a  great  deal  better  how  to 
take  care  of  us,  than  you  would  have  known 
if  you  had  not  been  sick  yourself. 


17 


"  I  cannot  write  any  more  now.  I  should 
.ike  to  have  you  answer  my  letter  to-morrow, 
if  you  please. 

"  t  am  your  affectionate  mother, 

"L.  H." 

Hollo  was  very  much  pleased  with  his  let 
ter.  He  read  it  again  and  again,  and  he 
thought  it  was  very  kind  indeed  in  his 
mother  to  write  it  for  him.  He  determined 
that  when  he  got  up  he  would  write  an  an 
swer  to  it. 

He  wanted  to  get  up  immediately,  but  as 
he  had  been  sick  the  day  before,  he  did  not 
know  whether  his  mother  would  be  willing. 
He  waited,  accordingly,  a  few  minutes,  and 
presently  his  mother  came  in  to  ask  him  how 
he  did.  She  found  him  so  much  better,  that 
she  let  him  get  up  and  dress  himself,  and 
she  said  she  thought  that  perhaps  after 
breakfast  he  might  go  out  a  little  while  to 
play. 

a*  2* 


18 


CRITICISM 

AFTER  breakfast,  however,  his  mother,  on 
going  to  the  door,  found  that  a  bleak  wind 
was  blowing,  and  she  thought  that  it  would 
be  better  for  Rollo  to  remain  in  the  house. 
She  moved  his  little  desk  into  the  parlor, 
and  put  it  by  the  side  of  the  fire  ;  and  she 
told  him  that  he  might  sit  at  it  and  arnuse 
himself  in  any  way  he  pleased. 

"  You  may  read,"  she  said,  "  in  some 
story-book,  or  you  may  write  or  draw,  or 
paste  pictures  into  your  scrap-book." 

"  I'll  tell  you  what  I  will  do,  mother," 
said  Roilo.  "  I  will  write  an  answer  to  your 
letter." 

"Very  well,"  replied  his  mother;  "I 
should  like  to  have  you  do  that  very  much." 

So  Rollo  began  to  get  out  his  writing 
materials  to  write  his  letter.  His  mother 
went  away,  and  presently  came  back  into 
the  room  with  two  or  three  large,  rosy  ap 
ples,  in  a  small  plate. 


CRITICISM.  19 

11  Are  those  apples  for  me  ?  "  said  Rollo. 

"  One  of  them  is  ;  I  am  going  to  let  you 
roast  it,"  replied  his  mother. 

"  I  am  very  glad  of  that,"  said  Rollo, 
jumping  up  from  his  seat,  and  going  to  take 
one  of  the  apples. 

"  You'll  take  a  good  deal  of  pleasure," 
said  his  mother,  "  I  have  no  doubt,  in  watch 
ing  it  while  it  is  roasting,  and  then  in  eating 
it  when  it  is  roasted  and  cool." 

"  Yes,  mother,"  said  Rollo. 

"  And  you  must  remember,  when  other 
children  that  have  been  sick  are  getting  bet 
ter;  and  you  have  the  care  of  them,  that  it  is 
an  excellent  thing  to  put  them  down  an 
apple  to  roast.  It  amuses  a  convalescent 
very  much,  and  then  it  tastes  very  pleasantly 
when  they  come  to  eat  it,  especially  if  you 
put  a  little  sugar  on  it." 

"  Are  you  going  to  put  any  sugar  on 
mine  ?  "  asked  Rollo. 

"  Yes,  perhaps  I  shall,  if  you  are  a  good 
boy." 

"  Well,  mother,"  said  Rollo,  after  a  mo 
ment's  pause,  "  and  when  Thanny  is  sick,  T 
\vill  get  him  an  apple." 


20  CRITICISM. 

So  Hollo  put  the  apples  down  to  the  fire  to 
roast,  and  then  sat  down  to  write  his  letter.* 

Li  about  ten  minutes  his  mother  came 
back  into  the  room,  intending  to  sit  down  to 
her  work,  and  keep  Hollo  company.  She 
found  him  just  folding  up  the  piece  of  paper 
which  he  had  been  writing  his  letter  upon. 

"  Have  you  finished  your  letter  already  ?  " 
she  said. 

"  Yes,"  he  replied ;  "  haven't  I  been 
quick  ?  " 

"  Pretty  quick,"  rejoined  his  mother, 
"  though  that  is  not  always  the  highest 
praise  a  letter  can  receive." 

"  What  is  not  ?  "  asked  Rollo. 

"  Its  having  been  written  quick,"  she 
replied. 

At  the  same  time  she  took  Hollo's  letter, 
sat  down  by  the  side  of  her  work-table,  laid 
her  work  down,  and  prepared  to  read  the 
letter.  Rollo  stood  by  her  side  to  look  over. 

The  paper  was  a  small,  square  piece.  It 
was  folded  over  and  over  once  or  twice ;  on 
the  back  side  was  written,  "  FOR  MY  MOTHER," 
in  pretty  large  letters.  They  opened  it,  and 
Rol  o's  mother  read  as  follows.  It  was  writ 
ten  very  near  the  upper  edge  of  the  paper, 


KOLLO    STOOD  BY  HER  bIDE  AND  LOOKED  OVER         Page    20. 


CRITICISM.  21 

and  there  were  some  mistakes  ;  but  she  took 
no  notice  of  them  in  reading  it.  She  read  it 
correctly,  as  Rollo  intended  it  to  have  been 
written. 

l(  Dear  Mother, 

"  I  am  very  much  obliged  to  you  for 
sending  me  a  letter.  I  am  going  to  write 
you  an  answer  now.  1  believe  I  cannot 
write  any  more  now. 

"  Your  affectionate  son, 

"  ROLLO." 

"  O  dear  me ! "  said  Rollo,  "  how  the 
Rollo  is  blotted!" 

"  Yes,"  said  his  mother,  "  you  folded  it 
up  before  the  ink  was  dry." 

"  That  is  because  I  was  in  a  hurry  to  get 
it  done,"  replied  Rollo. 

"  Yes,"  said  his  mother  ;  and  she  began 
then  to  resume  her  work. 

"  Well,  mother,"  said  Rollo,  after  a  few 
minutes'  pause,  "  and  what  do  you  think  of 
my  letter?" 

"  I  know  what  I  think"  said  she,  "  but  I 
don't  know  exactly  what  I  had  better  say." 

"Why  not?'    said  Rollo. 


22  CRITICISM. 

"  Because  I  don't  know  which  you  most 
desire,  praise  or  improvement." 

"  I  don't  understand  exactly  what  you 
mean/'  said  Rollo. 

"  Why,  if  you  have  written  this  letter 
only  to  be  praised  for  it,  and  are  in  such  a 
state  of  mind  as  to  be  satisfied,  yourself, 
with  this  first  attempt,  and  wish  to  find  me 
satisfied  with  it,  then  I  must  praise  it ;  and 
I  can  praise  it  very  easily  and  honestly, 
for,  considering  that  it  is  the  first  attempt, 
it  is  really  very  well.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  if  your  mind  is  more  intent  on  future 
improvement  than  on  present  praise,  then  I 
must  look  over  the  letter  and  find  out  all  the 
faults,  and  tell  you  of  them,  so  that  you  may 
improve,  and  become  a  good  letter-writer. 
But  then,  if  I  do  that,  it  will  disturb  the 
satisfaction  which  you  now  feel  with  your 
letter,  for  I  should  find  a  good  many  faults." 

Rollo  hesitated.  He  hardly  knew  which 
view  he  should  prefer  to  have  his  mother 
taJ^e  of  the  case.  He  had  written  the  letter 
to  please  his  mother,  and  he  wanted  very 
much  to  have  her  express  herself  pleased  and 
satisfied  with  it ;  but  then,  on  the  other 
hand,  he  wanted  to  make  improvement,  and 


CRITICISM.  23 

BO  he  wished  to  have  the  faults  pointed 
out. 

"  Mother,"  he  said  at  length,  after  think 
ing  of  the  subject  a  few  minutes,  "  I  wish 
you  would  do  both.  First  tell  me  about  the 
letter,  as  if  you  thought  I  wanted  praise, 
and  then,  afterwards,  tell  me  the  faults." 

"  Very  well,"  said  his  mother,  "  I  will. 
In  the  first  place,  then,  I  think  you  were  a 
good  boy  to  think  of  writing  me  an  answer, 
of  your  own  accord.  It  showed  that  you 
felt  some  gratitude  to  me  for  writing  the  let 
ter.  Then  it  is  written  neatly.  'Tis  true 
you  blotted  the  Rollo  a  little  in  folding  it  up ; 
but  then  you  seem  to  have  taken  pains  and 
care  to  write  it  well,  and  to. keep  it  clean. 
Then  you  finished  it  all,  complete,  folding 
and  addressing  it ;  and  you  made  no  fretful 
complaints  about  your  pen  and  ink,  or  your 
writing,  while  you  were  at  work." 

While  his  mother  was  saying  this,  Rollo 
leaned  upon  the  arm  of  her  chair,  looking 
down  upon  her  work,  but  with  an  evident 
expression  of  pleasure  upon  his  countenance. 
When  his  mother  had  finished,  he  paused  a 
moment,  and  then,  looking  up,  he  said, 


CRITICISM. 

"  And  now,  mother,  tell  me  what  you 
would  say  if  I  wanted  improvement." 

"  Very  well,  I  will,"  she  said. 

"  In  the  first  place,  the  form  of  the  paper 
would  have  been  better  if  you  had  folded  it 
once,  before  you  began  to  write,  like  a  sheet 
of  paper,  so  as  to  make  four  pages.  It  would 
then  have  looked  more  like  a  real  letter." 

"  I  thought  this  would  do  just  as  well," 
said  Hollo. 

"  It  is  a  little  better,  perhaps,"  said  his 
mother,  "  to  have  your  letters  correspond  in 
form  with  those  you  will  hereafter  have  to 
write  ;  then  you  will  become  familiar  with 
the  form,  and  with  all  the  details." 

"  Well,  moUier,"  said  Hollo,  "  I  will  fold 
over  the  next  one." 

"  Then  you  have  not  written  any  date. 
The  date,  you  know,  is  a  memorandum  of 
the  place  and  time  where  the  letter  was 
written,  and  is  placed  upon  the  upper  corner, 
towards  the  right  hand." 

"  But,  mother,  you  knew  where  the  letter 
was  written,  and  when:" 

"  Yes,  but  your  object  is  improvement, 
and  so  it  is  best  to  write  the  lettei  according 


CRITICISM. 


25 


to  aJ  the  usual  forms.  Besides,  it  is  specially 
important  to  be  in  the  habit  of  always  put 
ting  in  the  date  to  a  letter.  Some  persons 
very  frequently  forget  it." 

Here  Rollo  went  to  his  desk,  and  looked 
at  his  mother's  letter,  which  was  lying  open 
there,  and  said, 

"Yours  is  dated,  'At  my  Work-Table.'  I 
thought  we  ought  to  put  in  the  name  of  the 
town." 

"  We  must  put  in  such  a  designation  of 
the  place  as  will  be  sufficient*  for  the  infor 
mation  of  the  person  whom  we  are  writing 
to.  As  you  knew  perfectly  well  what  town 
I  was  writing  in,  I  thought  it  would  be  more 
interesting  to  you  to  know  that  I  was  writing 
at  my  work-table." 

"  Yes,  mother,  it  was,"  said  Rollo. 

"  So,  sometimes,  people  date  a  letter  '  At 
Sea,'  or  l  Newgate  Prison,'  or  '  On  board 
ship  Bellerophon,'  or  put  any  other  designa 
tion  of  the  place  which  they  think  will  be 
most  interesting  to  their  correspondent." 

"Newgate  Prison?"  repeated  Rollo. 

"  Yes,"  replied  his  mother  ;  "  if  a  person 
«vas  in  Newgate  Prison,  which  is  in  London, 
he  would  be  likely  to  date  his  letter  in  those 
b  3 


26  CRITICISM. 

words,  rather  than   by  the  word   '  London. 
So  you  might  date  a  letter  to  Jonas,  if  you 
should  write  one  to  him,   '  In  the  Parlor,'  or 
wherever  you  might  write  it." 

"  I  will,"  said  Hollo,  his  eye  brightening 
up  at  the  idea.  "  I  will  write  Jonas  a  letter. 
Perhaps  he  will  answer  it." 

"  Perhaps  he  will ;  but  now  I  am  going  on 
to  tell  you  of  the  points  in  which  you  can 
iiMorove,  in  writing  your  letters." 

"  Well,  mother,"  said  Hollo,  "  what  is  the 
next?" 

"  The  next  point  is,  that  I  would  advise 
you,  after  you  have  written  a  letter,  always 
to  look  it  over  very  carefully  yourself,  before 
you  send  it,  and  correct  all  the  mistakes  you 
can  find  in  it." 

"  Are  there  any  mistakes  in  my  letter  to 
you,  mother  ?  "  said  Rollo. 

"  Yes,"  replied  his  mother,  "  there  are 
several." 

"  I  wrote  it  as  well  as  I  could,"  said 
Rollo. 

"  I  know  you  did  ;  but  perhaps  you  did 
not  .ook  over  it  carefully,  after  you  had 
finished  it." 

"  No,  mother,  I  did  not,"  said  Rollo. 


CRITICISM.  27 

"  It  often  happens  that  a  person  sees  many 
mistakes,  in  carefully  revising  his  work, 
which  he  did  not  notice,  in  first  writing  it. 
You  can  try  it,  with  this  letter  of  yours.  If 
you  look  it  over  carefully  now,  perhaps  you 
will  find  some  mistakes." 

Hollo  looked  over  his  letter  carefully,  as 
his  mother  had  suggested,  and  he  found  quite 
a  number  of  mistakes.  Some  words  were 
misspelt  ;  commas  and  periods  were  omitted, 
and  in  one  case  a  whole  word  was  left.  out. 
Rollo  corrected  these  errors,  and  he  deter 
mined  that  when  he  had  finished  his  letter 
to  Jonas,  he  would  revise  it  very  carefully, 
before  it  was  sent. 

"  I  have  one  more  thing  to  tell  you,"  re 
sumed  his  mother,  "  and  that  relates  to  the 
subject  matter  of  your  letter.  It  contains 
three  sentences.  The  first  tells  me  that  you 
were  very  glad  to  receive  a  letter  from  me. 
That  is  very  well,  for  I  should  naturally  be 
glad  to  have  evidence  that  the  letter  pleased 
you.  The  second  sentence  tells  me  you 
were  going  to  write  me  an  answer.  Now,  it 
was  of  no  consequence  to  say  that,  for  of 
course,  on  receiving  your  answer,  I  should 
know  that  you  concluded  to  write  me  one. 


28  CRITICISM. 

And  the  last  sentence  tells  me  that  you  can 
not  write  any  more  now.  This  I  should 
know  too,  of  course,  by  finding  that  the  let- 
tor  was  ended.  So  that  two  sentences  out 
of  three  were  of  no  use." 

Hollo  smiled  at  the  emptiness  of  his  epis 
tle.  After  a  minute  or  two,  however,  he 
attempted  to  excuse  it,  by  remarking  that  he 
did  not  know  what  else  to  say. 

c:  O,  yes,"  replied  his  mother  ;  "  you  might 
have  told  me  how  you  felt  this  morning,  or 
what  you  were  intending  to  do  to-day  ;  or 
have  given  me  an  account  of  something  you 
had  seen  or  done  before  you  were  sick  ;  or 
asked  me  some  questions.  There  are  a 
thousand  things  you  might  have  written 
about.  You  never  have  any  trouble  in  find 
ing  something  to  talk  about.  What  should 
you  think,  if  you  should  come  down  some 
morning,  and  find  Nathan  in  the  parlor,  and 
should  say  something  to  him,  and  then  if  he 
should  answer,  '  Hollo,  I  am  glad  you  spoke 
to  me,  and  I  am  going  to  say  something  to 
you  in  answer.  That  is  all  I  am  going  to 
say  now.'  ' 

Rollo  laughed  outright  at  the  idea  of  such 
a  speech  from  Thanny  ;  but  his  mother  told 


CRITICISM. 

him  it  would  be  almost  exactly  like  his 
letter. 

11  A  great  many  people,"  said  she,  "  fill 
up  their  letters  with  utterly  useless  matter, 
which  gives  their  correspondents  no  informa 
tion,  and  affords  them  no  pleasure  ;  —  such 
as  apologies  for  not  having  written  before  ;  or 
telling  them  that  they  have  concluded  to  write 
now  ;  or  that  they  mean  to  write  more  fre 
quently  hereafter ;  or  that  they  have  a  bad 
pen,  or  are  in  a  hurry ;  or  that  their  hand 
trembles ;  or  other  similar  things.  I  advise 
you  to  fill  up  your  letters  with  something 
more  interesting  than  such  things." 

"  And  then,"  continued  his  mother,  "  I 
would  write  longer  and  fuller  letters." 

"  But,  mother,"  said  Rollo,  "  it  will  take 
me  a  great  while  to  write  a  long  letter." 

"  Very  well,"  said  his  mother,  "  be  a  great 
while.  For  instance,  if  you  are  going  to 
write  to  Jonas,  it  would  be  better  to  put  a 
great  deal  of  value  into  a  few  letters,  than 
divide  and  scatter  it  over  a  great  many." 

"  I  do  not  understand  exactly  what  you 
mean,"  said  Rollo. 

"  Why,  you  will  be  occasionally  writing 
•ette.rs  to  Jonas,  I  will  suppose  Now,  if  you 
3* 


30  CRITICISM. 

write  only  a  short  letter  to-day,  of  a  few 
lines,  to-morrow  you  may  write  another,  and 
the  next  day  another  ;  and  then,  in  a  week  or 
two,  yon  will  have  written  a  number  of  little 
letters,  none  of  which  will  be  worth  much. 
But  if  you  devote  the  time  you  spend  in 
writing  letters  for  several  days  to  one  letter, 
you  will  probably  produce  one  of  some  value  ; 
and  Jonas  will  prize  it  much  more  than  he 
would  the  little  ones." 

Hollo  was  not  so  much  pleased  with  his 
mother's  opinion  on  this  last  point,  as  he  had 
been  upon  the  others.  He  did  not  quite  like 
the  idea  of  waiting  so  long  before  sending 
Jonas  his  first  letter.  However,  he  deter 
mined  to  write  Jonas  a  great  deal  longer  and 
better  letter  than  he  had  written  his  mother  ; 
and  he  went  to  his  desk,  prepared  his  paper, 
and  began. 

He  worked  upon  his  letter  industriously 
for  an  hour,  and  was  so  still  that  his  mother 
almost  forgot  what  he  was  doing.  At  length, 
however,  he  got  up  out  of  his  chair,  and 
said, 

"  There,  now  it  is  done  ;  only  I  have  got 
to  look  it  over." 

He  then  soemed  busy  for  a  few  mirutes, 


CRITICISM.  31 

looking  it  over,  and  soon  after  brought  it  to 
his  mother,  for  her  to  read.  She  read  it 
aloud,  as  follows  :  — 

"  At  my  Desk  in  the  Parlor,  Thursday  Morning 

"  Dear  Jonas, 

"  1  am  learning  to  write  letters,  and 
am  going  to  write  one  to  you.  I  have  been 
sick,  but  now  I  feel  a  great  deal  better.  I 
am  almost  well  enough  to  go  out  and  work 
with  you  to-day  in  the  woods,  only  it  is 
beginning  to  snow ;  and  besides,  my  hatchet 
makes  my  arm  ache,  so  that  I  cannot  work 
but  a  little  while. 

"  Do  you  tfrink  we  are  going  to  have 
much  of  a  storm  ? 

"  Yours,  truly, 

"  HOLLO. 

"  P.  S.  I  wish  you  would  write  me  an 
answer." 

Hollo's  mother  liked  the  letter  very  much, 
and  while  Hollo  was  folding  and  directing  it, 
she  went  to  the  fire  to  take  up  his  apple. 

"  There,"  said  Hollo,  "  I  forgot  my  apple. 

"  Never  mind,"  said  his  mother,  "  I  have 
been  watching  it  for  you." 


CRITICISM. 

Roho  observed  that  there  were  three  apples 
at  the  fire,  although  lie  had  put  down  only  one. 
He  asked  his  mother  who  they  were  all  for. 

"  One  is  for  you/'  she  replied,  "  and  one 
is  for  Nathan." 

"  And  the  third  ? "  said  Rollo,  inquir 
ingly. 

"  O,  that  is  a  secret." 

"  /  know,"  said  Rollo. 

"  Who  do  you  think  ?  " 

"  For  you  ?  " 

"No." 

"  For  father  ?  " 

"  No." 

"  For  Jonas?' 

"No,  not  for  Jonas." 

"  Is  it  for  me,  then  ?  "  said  Rollo. 

"  No,  not  exactly." 

"  Then  for  Nathan  ;  are  you  going  to  let 
him  have  two  ?  " 

"  No,  you  have  not  guessed  exactly." 

Rollo  was  so  perplexed  with  this  riddle, 
that  he  stopped  folding  his  letter,  looked  at 
the  apples,  and  tried  to  think  who  the  third 
one  could  possibly  be  for.  But  his  mother 
told  him  to  go  on  with  his  work,  and  she 


CRITICISM.  33 

said  that  after  he  and  Nathan  had  eaten  their 
apples,  she  would  tell  him  who  the  third 
apple  was  for. 

Hollo  folded  and  addressed  his  letter,  and 
then  began  to  seal  it  with  a  wafer,  which  his 
mother  let  him  have,  while  she  went  out 
with  the  apples,  to  put  a  little  sugar  upon 
them.  In  a  few  minutes  she  returned,  Na 
than  following  her.  He  had  seen  the  apples, 
and  was  highly  delighted  to  think  that  he 
was  going  to  have  one  of  them. 

"  Now,  mother,"  said  Rollo,  "  how  shall  I 
send  rny  letter  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  she  ;  "  perhaps  Na 
than  will  carry  it." 

As  she  said  this,  she  put  the  little  plate, 
with  the  three  roasted  apples  upon  it,  down 
upon  a  chair,  where  both  Rollo  and  Nathan 
could  reach  it.  Nathan  crowded  up  closely 
to  see,  but  he  did  not  touch  them.  There 
were  two  spoons  in  the  plate,  one  for  Rollo, 
and  one  for  Nathan. 

"  What  ?  "   said  Nathan  ;  "  carry  what  ?  " 

"  Carry  my  letter  out  to  Jonas." 

"  Well,"  said  Nathan,  "  I  will  carry  it,  as 
soon  as  I  have  eaten  my  apple." 

"  But  I  want  it  carried  now."  said  Rollo. 


34  CRITICISM. 

"  I  want  Jonas  to  have  it  as  soon  as  pos 
sible." 

"No,"  said  Nathan,  "  not  till  after  I  have 
eaten  my  apple." 

Rollo  wanted  Nathan  to  go  then  very 
much,  but  Nathan  could  not  consent  to  post 
pone  the  eating  of  his  apple.  Rollo  began 
to  complain  of  him  in  an  impatient  tone,  as 
if  he  had  a  right  to  require  him  to  go  and 
deliver  the  letter. 

His  mother  reproved  him.  She  said  that 
Nathan  must  do  just  as  he  pleased  about 
going,  as  he  was  under  no  obligation  to  go 
at  all. 

"  Well,"  said  Rollo,  « I  wish  he  would 
go.  Come,  Thanny,  that's  a  good  boy ;  do, 
and  then  I  will  give  you  one  spoonful  of  my 
apple." 

Nathan  hesitated.  He  looked  at  the  ap 
ples,  but  seemed  undecided. 

"  Pay  him  in  advance,"  said  Rollo's 
mother,  "  and  perhaps  he  will  go." 

"  Well,'J  said  Rollo  ;  and  he  cut  out  a 
mouthful  of  his  apple  with  his  spoon,  and 
held  it  out  towards  Nathan,  saying, 

11  The.-e,  Nathan,"  if  you  will  carry  the  let 
ter  now,  [  will  give  you  this  out  of  my  apple, 


CRITICISM. 


35 


and  you  will  have  all  your  own  besides. 
Come,  open  your  mouth." 

So  Nathan  opened  his  mouth,  and  Rollo 
put  the  spoonful  of  apple  in.  Nathan  then 
took  the  letter,  and  went  out  to  find  Jonas. 

He  passed  through  the  kitchen  with  his 
letter  in  his  hand,  and  thence  went  out  to 
the  shed.  The  shed  door  was  open,  and,  on 
looking  out,  Nathan  exclaimed, 

"  O  dear  me  !    it  snows." 

The  ground  was  white,  and  the  snow  was 
falling,  though  not  very  fast.  Nathan  did 
not  like  to  go  out.  He  heard  Jonas  at  work 
in  the  barn,  and  he  called  out  to  him,  but 
he  could  not  make  him  hear.  Then  he  de 
termined  to  go  and  get  the  bell,  and  ring 
him  in. 

He  accordingly  went  back  through  the 
kitchen  to  another  entry,  where  the  bell  was 
hanging,  and  he  brought  it  to  the  shed  door, 
and  began  to  ring.  Jonas  heard  it,  and  came 
to  the  barn  door.  When  he  saw  Nathan 
ringing  the  bell,  he  called  out  to  know  what 
he  wanted. 

"  Here  is  a  letter  for  you,"  said  Nathan, 
holding  out  the  letter. 

New,  Nathan  used  often  to  amuse  himself 


30  CRITICISM. 

by  folding  up  little  pieces  of  paper,  which  ne 
picked  up  about  the  house,  and  carrying 
them  to  Jonas  or  Dorothy,  saying,  "  Here  is 
a  letter  for  you."  And  Jonas  supposed  that 
this  was  only  some  of  Nathan's  play.  So  he 
answered, 

"  I  can't  come  to  get  it  now,  Thanny ;  I 
am  busy.  And,  besides,  you  must  go  back, 
for  it  snows." 

The  wind  blew,  and  the  snow,  which  was 
flying  through  the  air,  came  a  little  into 
Nathan's  face,  and  confused  him,  so  that  he 
did  not  hear  very  well  what  Jonas  said.  It 
happened  that  there  was  a  bench  just  outside 
of  the  shed  door,  and  Nathan  concluded  that 
he  would  put  the  letter  upon  the  bench,  and 
let  Jonas  come  and  get  it  when* he  was 
ready.  So  he  laid  it  down,  calling  out,  at 
the  same  time, 

"  I  will  put  it  on  this  bench." 

"  Very  well,"  said  Jonas,  "and  now  run 
in." 

So  Nathan  ran  back  in  search  of  Rolio  and 
his  apple,  in  the  parlor. 

"  What  did  he  say  ?  "  asked  Hollo,  when 
Nathan  came  in. 


CRITICISM.  37 

*'  He  said  he  was  busy,"  said  Nathan. 

"  Busy  !  "    said  Rollo. 

"  Yes,"  replied  Nathan. 

Rollo  said  he  did  not  understand  what  he 
meant  by  that. 

.  "  Perhaps,"  said  his  mother,  "  he  meant 
that  he  could  not  answer  it  then,  because  he 
was  busy.  I  rather  think  you  will  get  an 
answer  by  and  by." 

So  Rollo  and  Nathan  took  their  spoons, 
and  began  to  eat  their  apples  ;  Rollo  won 
dering  all  the  time  who  the  third  apple  could 
be  for.  When  they  had  done  eating  the  two, 
however,  they  went  to  their  mother  to  know 
who  was  to  have  the  other,  and  she  said  that 
she  got  the  three  apples,  one  for  Rollo,  one 
for  Nathan,  and  the  third  for  Rollo  and 
Nathan  together. 

"  Why,  mother,"  said  Rollo,  "  you  said  it 
was  not  for  us.  I  guessed  MS." 

"  No,  you  guessed  yourself,  and  also  Na 
than,  separately  ;  and  I  told  you  that  was  not 
right,  exactly." 

Rollo  recollected  that  it  was  so ;   and  then 
he  and  Nathan  went  back,  and  ate  the  third 
apple.     They  afterwards  amused  themselves 
4 


38  CRITICISM. 

in  various  ways  all  day  ;  but  Rollo  heard 
nothing  from  Jonas,  ahout  his  letter. 

After  tea,  however,  he  concluded  to  go 
and  see  Jonas.  He  accordingly  went  out- 
and  found  him  getting  ready  to  sit  down  by 
the  fire  to  read. 

"  Jonas,"  said  he,  "  a'n't  you  going  to 
answer  my  letter  ?  " 

"  What  letter  ?  "    said  Jonas. 

"  Why,  the  letter  which  I  wrote  you  this 
morning." 

"  I  did  not  know  you  wrote  me  one," 
replied  Jonas ;  "  I  have  not  received  it." 

Rollo  was  astonished.  He  could  not  im 
agine  what  had  become  of  his  letter. 

"  I  wrote  you  a  noble  long  letter,  and  sent 
Nathan  with  it.  I'll  go  and  ask  him  what 
he  did  with  it." 

So  off  he  went  in  search  of  Nathan.  He 
found  him  in  the  parlor,  playing  horses. 

"  Nathan,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  gave  you  my 
letter  to  carry  to  Jonas ;  what  did  you  do 
with  it?" 

Nathan  felt  a  little  afraid ;  he  had  had 
some  misgivings  about  leaving  the  letter  on 
the  bench.  He  began  to  walk  back  and 


CRITICISM.  39 

forth,  with  his  hands  behind  him,  and  his 
head  down. 

"  Yes,"  said  he,  "  1  carried  it." 

"  And  what  did  you  do  with  it  ?  "  said 
Hollo,  following  him  closely. 

"  I  put  it  on  the  bench,"  said  Nathan, 
timidly. 

"  What  bench  ?  "   said  Hollo. 

"  I  put  it  on  the  bench,  by  the  shed  ;  and 
Jonas  saw  it." 

Hollo  went  back  to  Jonas,  and  told  him 
that  Nathan  said  he  put  the  letter  upon  a 
bench,  and  that  Jonas  saw  it.  Then  Jonas 
recollected  that  Nathan  had  brought  him  a 
letter,  and  put  it  upon  the  bench  ;  and  lie 
arose,  and  went  to  look  for  it.  It  was  pretty 
dark,  and  so  he  took  a  lantern.  The  bench 
was  covered  with  snow,  and  more  was  fall 
ing.  Jonas  brushed  the  snow  away  care 
fully,  but  no  letter  was  to  be  found.  Jonas 
then  thought  that  perhaps  the  wind  might 
have  blown  off  the  letter,  before  it  got  cov 
ered  up  with  snow,  and  he  began  to  poke 
around  with  a  stick,  among  the  little  drifts, 
in  the  direction  towards  which  the  wind 
would  have  blown  it.  Out  it  came  at  length, 


10  CRITICISM. 

from  under  a  little  rose-bush.  Jonas  care 
fully  brushed  off  the  dry  snow,  and  brought 
it  into  the  house.  He  sat  down  by  the 
chimney  corner  and  opened  it,  and  read  it, 
Hollo  standing  by  his  side.  He  answered  it 
that  evening  ;  and  the  answer,  together  with 
some  other  letters,  which  Rollo  wrote  and 
received,  will  be  given  in  the  next  chapter. 


41 


A    CHAPTER    OF    LETTERS. 
LETTER  I.  —  Jonas  to  Rollo. 

"  Thursday  Evening. 

"  Dear  Rollo, 

"  I  received  your  letter,  though  not 
till  very  late.  The  mail  did  not  get  in  in 
good  season.  It  was  owing  to  the  great 
snow  storm.  The  mail-carrier  could  not  get 
along,  and  he  abandoned  the  mail,  and  it  got 
all  buried  up  in  the  snow.  But  they  recov 
ered  it  again,  and  so  the  letter  arrived  at 
last. 

"  I  am  sorry  you  have  been  sick.  Once  I. 
was  sick.  It  was  when  I  was  a  little  boy. 
I  don't  remember  much  about  it.  Only  I 
was  on  board  a  vessel.  The  sailors  made  a 
terrible  noise,  and  disturbed  me.  I  was  lying 
upon  a  chest.  It  was  very  hard.  One  of  the 
sailors  frightened  me  very  much.  He  looked 
very  cross,  and  said  he  was  going  to  bring 
down  a  whole  bucket  of  salt  water,  and  make 
me  drink  it  for  medicine  ;  for  he  said  1  was 
b*  4* 


42 


shammii -g  sick.  But  I  wasn't  shamming 
sick  ;  I  was  really  sick.  I  had  a  dreadful 
pain  in  my  side,  and  could  hardly  breathe. 
I  have  forgotten  how  I  got  well. 

"  I  think  I  can  fix  a  long  handle  into  your 
hatchet,  so  that  you  can  use  it  like  an  axe, 
with  both  hands,  and  then  it  will  not  make 
your  wrist  ache.  I  will  do  it  early  to 
morrow  morning,  and  then  we  can  go  out 
together,  if  it  does  not  snow. 

"  Good  night. 

"  JONAS." 


LETTER  II.  — Rollo  to  his  Father. 

"  Friday  Evening. 

11  My  dear  Father, 

"  Jonas  and  I  have  been  down  into 
the  woods  to-day,  hauling  up  wood  on  the 
new  sled.  I  helped  Jonas  load.  We  brought 
up  eight  or  ten  loads.  There  is  a  good  deal 
more  to  come,  and  Jonas  is  going  to  work 
there  to-morrow,  and  I  want  to  go  with  him. 
But  there  is  one  difficulty.  My  feet  get  very 
cold  while  I  stay  down  there,  unless  there  is 
a  fire.  We  could  build  a  fire  pretty  well, 
but  it  melts  the  snow,  and  makes  a  wet.  place 


A    CHAPTER    OF    LETTERS.  43 

upon  the  ground.  Jonas  says,  that  if  I  had  a 
certain  large,  flat  stone,  which  is  lying  in 
the  pasture  up  the  brook,  for  a  hearth,  and 
two  other  stones  on  each  side  for  andirons,  1 
should  get  along  much  better  ;  for  I  could 
have  a  log  for  a  seat,  and  then  put  my  feet 
upon  the  warm  and  dry  hearth,  to  warm 
them.  I  asked  him  to  go  and  get  it  for  me, 
and  haul  it  down  upon  the  sled,  with  old 
Trumpeter.  But  he  says  he  cannot,  without 
your  leave  ;  and  that  is  what  I  have  written 
you  this  letter  for  —  to  ask  if  you  are  willing 
that  we  should  take  the  horse  and  the  sled, 
and  go  up  to-morrow  arid  haul  it  down. 
"  I  am  your  affectionate  son, 

"  ROLLO. 

"  P.  S.  Jonas  thinks  it  will  not  take  more 
than  half  an  hour." 


LETTER  III.  —  Rollo's  Father  to  Rollo. 

'  Saturday  Mornirg. 

(t  My  dear  Boy, 

"  Yours,  of  last  evening,  was  duly 
received.  Jonas  may  get  the  stone  for  you. 
I  think  it  is  a  very  good  plan  to  make  a  fire- 


44 


place  of  it.     It  will  be  a  good  place  to  roast 
apples,  as  well  as  to  warm  feet. 
"  Affectionately,  your 

"  FATHER." 


LETTER  IV.  —  Rollo  to  his  Cousin  Lucy. 

"  Monday. 

11  My  dear  Cousin, 

"  I  have  lately  begun  to  write  letters, 
and  as  it  snows  to-day,  so  that  I  can't  go 
out,  I  have  concluded  to  write  a  letter  to 
you.  I  am  now  sitting  at  my  little  desk  by 
the  parlor  fire.  Mother  has  just  been  telling 
Nathan  a  story.  It  was  this,  as  nearly  as  I 
can  recollect  it : 

"  Once  there  was  a  little  boy,  about  as  big 
as  Nathan.  He  was  playing  around  upon 
the  floor.  He  found  a  little  black  thing, 
and  he  asked  his  mother  what  it  was,  and 
she  said  it  was  an  apple-seed.  And  the  boy 
asked  his  mother  what  it  was  good  for ;  and 
she  said,  it  would  grow  and  be  a  little  apple- 
tree. 

<;  So  the  boy  went  and  put  the  apple-seed 
out  of  doors  upon  a  bench,  and  a  few  days 
afterwards  he  went  to  Took  at  it,  and  he 


A    CHAPTER    OF    LETTERS.  45 

found  it  would  not  grow.  *  What  did  you 
do  with  it  ? '  said  his  mother.  '  I  put  it  on 
the  bench,'  said  the  boy.  '  O,'  said  his 
mother,  '  that  won't  do.  Seeds  won't  grow 
if  you  put  them  on  a  bench.  No,  indeed. 
You  must  plant  it  in  the  ground.'  •  How 
must  I  plant  it  ? '  said  the  boy.  l  You  must 
dig  a  little  hole  in  the  ground,  and  plant  it  in 
the  hole,'  said  his  mother. 

"  So  the  boy  went  out  and  got  his  seed, 
and  he  carried  it  out  into  the  yard,  and  dug 
a  little  hole,  and  dropped  his  seed  in  ;  but  he 
did  not  cover  it  up  ;  and  presently  a  little 
bird  came  along,  hopping,  and  she  picked  up 
the  seed,  and  ate  it  up.  And  the  boy  came  in 
and  told  his  mother  a  bird  had  got  his  seed 
And  she  said,  { Did  not  you  cover  it  up?: 
'  No,  mother,'  said  the  boy.  •  O/  said  his 
mother,  '  that  won't  do.  Seeds  won't  grow 
unless  you  cover  them  up.  No,  indeed.' 

"  And  now  I  am  tired  of  writing,  and  can 
not  tell  you  about  his  other  feed  till  the 
next  time. 

"  Good  by 

u  HOLLO." 


46 


LETTER  V.  —  Rollo' s  Father  to  Rollo. 

"  Monday,  just  before  Tea. 

"My  dear  Son, 

"  As  I  have  a  few  minutes  to  spare 
before  tea,  I  write  you  this  line,  to  request 
that  you  will  give  me  a  full  account  of  your 
success  in  moving  the  flat  stone,  and  making 
a  fireplace  of  it,  on  Saturday.  I  should  like 
to  have  Jonas  write  me  an  account,  too. 

"  FATHER." 


LETTER  VI.  —  Lucy  to  Rollo. 

"  Tuesday  Morning. 

"  My  dear  Cousin  Rollo, 

"  Last  evening,  when  I  got  home,  I 
found  your  letter  waiting  for  me,  and  I  had 
a  fine  time  reading  it,  while  I  was  warming 
myself.  I  was  pretty  cold,  for  I  had  been 
riding  into  the  city  with  my  father.  I  have 
not  any  story  to  tell  you,  and  so  I  will  give 
you  an  account  of  my  ride.  It  was  a  ride  in 
a  snow-storm. 

"  When  it  began  to  snow  in  the  morning, 
my  father  asked  me  if  my  courage  did  not 
fail  me  ;  but  I  told  him  no.  He  had  promised 
me  before  that  I  might  go  with  him,  and  1 


A    CHAPTER    OF    LETTERb.  47 

told  him  I  believed  I  must  hold  him  to  his 
promise.  So  we  got  into  the  sleigh  just  as 
the  snow  began  to  fall.  I  had  good  warm 
mittens,  and  a  hot  plank  to  put  my  feet 
upon. 

"The  snow  looked  beautifully,  falling 
through  the  air  and  lodging  upon  the  trees. 
The  roofs  of  the  houses  soon  grew  white, 
and  the  men  and  the  horses  that  we  met  with 
on  the  way,  were  all  frosted  over.  At  one 
place  we  saw  some  boys  out  at  play  around 
a  school-house.  Some  were  holding  out 
their  hands  to  let  the  snow-flakes  fall  upon 
them,  and  some  were  making  snow-balls  ; 
and  then  there  were  four  or  five  trying  to 
make  a  sliding  place,  by  brushing  off  the 
snow  from  a  long  piece  of  ice.  But  the 
snow  kept  falling  upon  it,  all  the  time,  so 
that  they  could  not  get  it  very  bright  and 
clean.  Still  they  could  slide  upon  it  pretty 
well.  I  wish  you  and  I  had  a  good  sliding 
place. 

"  When  we  got  into  the  city,  father  said 
he  had  some  business  to  do,  and  I  should 
have  to  wait  some  time.  So  he  took  me  to 
a  bookstore  where  he  was  acquainted,  and 
left  me  there.  He  gave  me  some  money  to 


48  HOLLO'S  CORRESPONDENCE, 

buy  me  a  book  ;  and  he  said  that  after  that  I 
might  sit  down  and  read  my  book,  till  he 
came  back.  I  could  not  find  any  book  that 
1  liked  very  well,  and  so  I  bought  a  little 
inkstand  and  some  steel  pens.  I  am  writing 
this  letter  with  one  of  my  pens,  and*  I  like 
very  much.  I  cannot  tell  you  abou*  our 
ride  home,  for  I  have  got  to  the  c^^.  of  my 
paper. 

"Your  aflcctionaf"  '  jiisin, 

"  LUCY. 

'*  P.  S.  I  hope  you  \vili  write  to  me  again 
soon,  and  tell  me  fl  3  rest  of  the  story." 


LETTER  VII.  —  Rollo  to  his  Father. 

"Tuesday  Evening. 

'  O'.ar  Father, 

"  According  to  your  request,  I  am 
£oing  now  to  give  you  an  account  of  our 
getting  the  flat  stone.  It  was  larger  and 
heavier  than  I  had  expected;  but  we  got  it. 
We  took  the  sled  there  to  haul  it  upon. 
Jonas  let  me  drive,  and  we  both  rode  on  the 
sled.  In  one  place  we  had  to  go  through 
the  brook. 


A    CHAPTER    OF    LETTERS.  49 

"  When  we  got  to  the  stone,  Jonas  and  I 
pried  it  up,  and  put  it  on  the  sled ;  and  then 
we  hauled  it  along  to  the  place.  This  is  all. 
I  am  going  out  to  show  Jonas  my  letter,  to 
ask  him  if  it  is  right,  and  also  to  see  his 
account. 

"  Your  affectionate  son, 

"  ROLLO. 

"  P.  S.  Jonas  says  my  letter  is  too  short, 
and  that  he  is  going  to  give  a  longer  account, 
and  that  his  will  not  be  done  for  several 
days. 

"  I  am  much  obliged  to  you  for  the  wafers 
you  gave  me.  They  are  just  right.  Jonas 
is  going  to  make  me  a  seal." 


LETTER  VIII.  —  Rollo  to  Lucy. 

"  Tuesday  Evening. 

11  My  dear  Cousin  Lucy, 

"  I  liked  your  account  of  your  ride 
very  much.  I  wish  we  had  a  sliding  place. 
I  mean  to  get  Jonas  to  pour  some  water  down 
some  evening,  when  the  night  is  going  to  be 
cold,  and  then  it  will  freeze,  and  we  can 
slide  upon  it  in  the  morning. 
c  5 


50 

"  My  father  has  given  me  some  wafers, 
and  I  send  you  some  with  this  letter.  My 
mother  gave  me  the  box.  T  have  got  another 
just  like  it  for  myself.  They  were  made  to 
put  hooks  and  eyes  in,  but  they  make  beau 
tiful  little  wafer  boxes.  I  have  written  one 
letter  to  father  this  evening,  and  so  I  cannot 
write  any  more  now. 

"  Your  affectionate  cousin, 

"  ROLLO." 


LETTER  IX.  —  Rollo' s  Mother  to  Rollo. 

"  Thursday,  Dec.  20. 

"  Dear  Rollo, 

"  As  I  was  looking  out  the  window 
this  morning,  I  saw  your  sled  left  in  the 
yard  in  the  walk.  Thinks  I  to  myself,  Rollo 
ought  to  take  care  of  his  sled  ;  I  must  speak 
to  him  about  it.  I,  however,  forgot  it  until 
you  began  to  ask  me  to  write  you  a  letter, 
and  then  I  concluded  to  write  on  this  sub 
ject.  I  accordingly  notify  you  hereby  that 
your  sled  is  left  out, — exposed  to  injury 
itself,  and  in  other  people's  way.  Therefore 
please  be  so  kind  as  to  take  care  of  it,  and 
greatly  oblige  yours,  &c. 

"  LAURA  H." 


A    CHAPTER    OF    LETTERS.  51 

LETTER  X.  —  Rollo  to  his  Mother. 

"  Thursday,  Dec.  '20. 

u  Dear  Mother, 

"  When  I  received  your  letter,  I  went 
out  to  get  my  sled,  but  I  could  not  find  it 
where  you  said  it  was  ;  and  after  I  had 
looked  all  about,  I  went  arid  asked  Jonas  if 
he  knew  where  it  was,  and  he  said,  '  Yes.' 
I  asked  him  where ;  and  he  said  he  had  im 
pounded  it.  I  asked  him  what  he  meant  by 
that ;  and  he  said,  that,  when  cattle,  or  horses, 
or  sheep  got  astray,  people  had  a  right  to 
shut  them  up  in  the  pound.  The  pound  is  a 
little  yard  with  a  high  fence,  very  strong,  all 
around  it,  and  when  any  body's  cattle  get 
shut  up  in  the  pound,  they  have  to  pay  some 
money  before  they  can  get  them  out  ;  this 
is  to  teach  them  to  take  better  care  of  them 
next  time,  and  not  let  them  get  astray  to 
trouble  their  neighbors. 

"  But  I  don't  think  that    Jonas    has  any 
business  to  impound  my  sled,  and  I  wish  you 
would  tell  him  to  give  it  back  to  me. 
"  Affectionately  yours, 

"  ROLLO." 


LETTER  XL  —  Rollo's  Mother  to  Rollo. 

"Dear  Rollo, 

"It  seems  to  me  that  the  plan  of  im- 
pounding  horses  and  cattle  is  a  very  good  one  , 
and  I  don't  see  why  the  principle  is  not  likely 
to  be  successful  when  applied  to  boys'  sleds. 
Please  let  me  know  why  you  object  to  it. 
You  can  answer  on  this  same  piece  of  paper, 
as  there  is  plenty  of  room. 

"MOTHER." 

Hollo  to  his  Mother,  (on  the  same  sheet.) 

"  Because,  mother,  my  sled  does  not  run 
about,  and  get  into  people's  gardens,  like 
cattle  and  horses. 

"  ROLLO." 

"  Bat  it  gets  in  people's  way ;  and  then  it 
looks  careless,  and  so  is  a  source  of  trouble  to 
all  who  like  order.  What  did  Jonas  say  you 
must  pay  for  poundage  ? 

"  MOTHER." 

"  I  did  not  stop  to  hear  ;  1  came  right  away 
as  soon  as  he  told  me  that  it  was  in  the 


A    CHAPTER    OF    LETTERS  53 

pouul,  and  that  I  must  pay  something  for 
poundage.  I  did  not  think  he  had  a  right  to 
make  me  pay  any  thing  for  poundage.  He 
called  out  to  me,  and  told  me  I  had  better 
come  back  and  hear  what  the  poundage  was; 
but  I  didn't  go. 

"  ROLLQ." 

"  t  am  sorry  you  did  not  go  and  hear  what 
he  had  to  say.  It  is  always  best  to  take  such 
things  good-naturedly.  I  advise  you  to  go 
and  ask  Jonas  what  the  poundage  is,  and  if 
it  is  any  thing  unreasonable,  then  you  can 
come  and  tell  me. 

"  This  paper  is  now  nearly  full.  We  have 
been  having  a  written  conversation  upon  it, 
rather  than  a  correspondence.  If  you  have 
any  thing  more  to  say  to  me  upon  this  subject, 
yo'i  had  better  take  a  new  piece  of  paper. 

"  MOTHER." 


LETTER  XII.  —  Jonas  to  Hollo's  Father. 

"Friday,  Dec. 21. 

"Respected  Sir, 

"  Rollo  showed  me  a  note  from  you, 
requesting  me  to  give  you  an  account  of  our 

5* 


54 

manner  of  moving  the  flat  stone.  I  will  do 
it,  very  gladly,  as  well  as  I  can. 

"  I  brought  the  sled  up  as  near  to  the  stone 
as  I  could,  and  then  tried  to  pry  the  stone 
over  on  to  the  sled.  But  I  found  that  it  was 
too  heavy  to  be  managed  in  this  way.  I 
could  pry  it  up  a  little,  but  could  not  turn  it 
over.  I  was  encouraged  when  I  found  that 
Rollo  and  I  could  move  it  with  the  iron  bar ; 
for  a  man  once  told  me  that  if  two  persons 
could  move  a  stone  at  all,  they  could  get 
it  up  a  mountain,  by  taking  time  enough. 

"  I  accordingly  concluded  to  pry  up  one  side, 
and  put  skids  under,  with  the  ends  resting  on 
the  sled ;  and  then  I  got  a  roller,  and  meant 
to  put  the  roller  under  the  stone,  and  so  roll 
it  up  the  skids.  I  got  some  stones  out  of  the 
brook,  and  Rollo  put  them  under  as  fast  as  I 
pried  the  stone  up.  I  had  to  be  very  careful 
not  to  let  him  get  his  fingers  under.  At  last 
we  got  the  stone  up  so  high  that  we  could  put 
under  the  skids  and  the  roller;  but  we  could 
not  roll  the  stone  up.  I  could  move  it  a  little 
way,  but  it  would  come  back  again  before  I 
could  get  another  hold. 

"  I  then  concluded  that  we  must  pry  up 
the  stone  until  we  should  get  it  as  high  as 


A    CHAPTER    OF    LETTERS.  55 

the  sled,  by  first  prying  up  one  side,  and 
blocking  it  up,  and  then  the  other.  I  thought 
we  could  then  put  the  skids  under,  level,  a] id 
then,  by  means  of  the  roller,  we  could  roll  it 
along.  This  plan  succeeded  very  well.  I 
pried  up  first  one  side,  and  then  the  other,  and 
Hollo  blocked  up  all  I  gained.  In  a  short 
time  we  got  it  a  little  higher  than  the  sled, 
and  then  I  could  put  the  skids  under,  level, 
only  I  had  to  block  up  the  ends  of  the  skids, 
which  were  under  the  stone.  After  we  got 
the  skids  fixed,  we  had  to  pry  up  the  stone  a 
little  higher,  so  as  to  get  the  roller  under, 
and  then  we  found  that  we  could  work  it 
along  with  our  bars  very  easily.  I  had  the 
iron  bar,  and  Rollo  had  a  wooden  one,  which 
I  made  for  him. 

"  After  we  got  it  loaded,  the  horse  drew  it 
eisily,  and  Rollo  and  myself,  besides,  on  the 
top  of  it ;  and  when  we  got  it  to  the  n'ghc 
place,  we  worked  it  oif  of  the  sled  withov  t 
much  difficulty. 

"  I  am,  very  respectfully, 

"  Your  friend, 

"  JONAS.' 


56  HOLLO'S  CORRESPONDENCE. 


LETTER  XIII.  —  Hollo  to  Lucy. 

"  Friday. 

u  Dear  Cousin  Lucy, 

"  The  rest  of  the  story  is  this.  The 
little  boy  got  another  apple-seed,  and  his 
mother  told  him  she  would  show  him  how  to 
plant  it.  So  she  took  a  little  flower-pot,  and 
put  some  earth  in  it,  and  then  she  made  a  little 
hole,  and  put  the  seed  in,  and  covered  it  up. 
'  There,'  said  she,  '  now  I  will  put  the  flower 
pot  in  the  sun,  by  the  window,  and  by  and 
by  it  will  grow.' 

"  So  in  about  a  fortnight  the  seed  came  up, 
and  it  grew  into  a  little  apple-tree.  When  it 
got  too  large  for  the  flower-pot,  the  boy's 
father  took  it  up  and  set  it  out  in  the  garden  ; 
and  after  some  years  it  began  to  bear  apples. 
They  were  largo,  red,  rosy  apples,  and  very 
sweet  and  good. 

"  Very  affectionately  yours, 

«  ROLLO." 


A    CHAPTER    OF    LETTERS.  57 

LETTER  XIV.  —  Rollo  to  his  Mother. 

"Saturday. 

"  Dear  Mother, 

<•  I  went  yesterday  to  ask  Jonas  what 
the  poundage  was,  upon  my  sled,  and  he  said 
it  was  only  to  give  him  a  slide  upon  it,  some 
day.  So  I  took  the  sled,  and  promised  to 
give  him  the  slide  any  day.  But  I  don't 
think  I  shall  slide  down  hill  any  more,  myself, 
this  winter,  for  I  had  rather  stay  in  at  my 
desk,  and  write  letters. 

"  But  there  is  one  thing  I  like  to  do  out  of 
doors,  and  that  is,  to  go  and  build  a  fire  at 
my  hearth,  down  by  the  brook.  It  is  a  beau 
tiful  fireplace,  and  some  day  I  want  you  to 
come  down  and  see  the  fire.  I  do  not  build  the 
fire  on  the  great  stone,  for  fear  that  it  should 
crack  it.  Jonas  says  that  fire  will  crack  some 
kinds  of  stone.  I  therefore  make  the  fire  on 
the  ground,  so  as  to  have  the  stone  before  it 
for  a  hearth.  Don't  you  think  you  could 
come  down  some  day,  and  see  me  roast  apples 
upon  it  ?„ 

"  ROLLO." 


58  HOLLO'S  CORRESPONDENCE. 

LETTER  XV.  —  Hollo's  Mother  to  RoUo. 

"Saturday  Morning. 
"  My  dear  Boy, 

"  I  am  glad  that  you  are  interested  in 
writing  letters  ;  but  you  must  not  expect  that 
the  interest  will  continue  very  long.  Children 
take  up  one  thing  after  another,  for  amuse 
ment,  and  enter  into  each  with  their  whole 
souls  ;  and  each  scheme,  after  having  had  its 
day,  is  abandoned  and  forgotten.  There  is 
no  harm  in  this,  for  if  children  go  on  steadily 
in  their  studies  and  duties,  they  may  vary 
their  amusements  as  much  as  they  please. 
Still  it  is  best  that  they  should  understand  it 
fully,  and  not  expect,  when  they  are  all  ab 
sorbed  in  some  new  pleasure,  that  it  will  last 
forever.  Just  now,  you  are  tired  of  sliding 
down  hill,  and  are  interested  in  writing  let 
ters,  but  you  should  not,  on  that  account,  be 
careless  of  your  sled ;  for  the  interest  in 
coasting  will  undoubtedly  return  again. 
"  From  your  affectionate 

"  MOTHER." 


A    CHAPTER    OF    LETTERS.  59 


LETTER  XVI.  —  Rollo  to  his  Mother. 

((  Dear  Mother, 

"  I  mean  to  take  care  of  my  sled  now ; 
but  I  really  don't  think  that  I  shall  want  tc 
slide  down  hill  any  more  this  winter,  my  feet 
get  so  cold.  And  then  I  don't  think  I  shall  get 
tired  of  writing  letters  ;  I  like  it  very  much, 
and  I  haven't  got  tired  of  it  yet. 

"  Your  affectionate  son, 

"  ROLLO  " 


THE    SUSPENSION 

WHEN  Rollo  brought  his  last  letter  to 
his  mother,  he  told  her  that  he  meant  to  get  a 
book,  and  keep  a  copy  of  all  his  letters  in  it. 

"  And  then  you  see,  mother,"  said  Roilo, 
"  I  can  have  my  letters  and  the  answers  too ; 
and  you  see  it  is  necessary  for  me  to  know 
what  I  wrote,  in  order  to  understand  the 
answers." 

"  Yes,"  replied  his  mother  ;  "  but  it  will  be 
a  good  deal  of  trouble  to  make  a  careful  copy 
of  every  letter,  before  you  send  it." 

"  O,  I  shall  not  mind  that,"  said  Rollo. 
"But  I  don't  see,  mother,"  he  continued, 
leaning  over  his  mother's  table,  with  his  pen 
in  his  hand,  "  what  makes  you  think  I  shall 
get  tired  of  writing  letters." 

"  Because  that  is  the  nature  of  boys." 

"  Is  it  the  nature  of  all  boys  ?  "  said  Rollo 

"  Of  all  that  I  have  ever  known  ;  and  at 
any  rate  it  is  your  nature." 

«  Is  it  ?  "  said  Rollo. 


THE    SUSPENSION.  61 

"  Certainly,"  replied  his  mother.  "  Don't 
you  remember  that  once  you  undertook  to 
learn  to  knit  ?  and  morning,  noon,  and  night 
there  was  nothing  like  knitting.  You  were 
as  pleased  with  your  needles,  as  you  now  are 
with  your  desk,  and  you  had  a  little  basket 
to  keep  your  ball  in.  But  in  a  week  the  in 
terest  was  all  over ;  and  now  I  doubt  whether 
you  could  find  either  your  needles  or  your 
basket." 

"  Well,  mother,  I  got  tired  of  knitting." 

"  Yes,  that  is  exactly  what  I  say.  It  was 
so  with  coasting.  When  you  first  had  your 
sled,  you  could  scarcely  think  of  any  thing 
else,  day  or  night.  Now,  you  care  very  little 
about  sliding." 

"  Well,  mother,  that  is  because  it  is  so 
cold." 

"  It  is  not  any  colder,"  replied  his  mother, 
"  than  it  was  when  you  first  had  your  sled." 

Rollo  knew  that  this  was  true,  and  had 
not  any  thing  to  say  in  reply;  so  he  was 
silent. 

"  I  want  you  to  understand  the  truth  of  the 
case,  Rollo,"  continued  his  mother  ;  "  which 
is,  that  children  like  novelty,  and  are  con« 
6 


6x  HOLLO'S  CORRESPONDENCE. 

slant]  y  shifting  and  changing  their  pleasures. 
I  don't  censure  you  for  this  at  all ;  I  only 
want  you  to  understand  it.  I  do  not  want 
you  to  suppose  that  this  love  of  letter-writing 
of  yours  is  the  development  of  a  new  and 
permanent  literary  taste,  which  is  going  to 
take  the  place  of  all  your  other  amusements ; 
for  this  would  be  a  delusion.  After  it  has 
had  its  day,  it  will  disappear  like  its  prede 
cessors,  and  something  else  will  take  its 
place." 

Rollo  could  hardly  believe  that  his  mother's 
views  of  the  philosophy  of  the  subject  were 
correct.  At  any  rate  he  was  perfectly  sure 
that  he  should  not  very  soon  lose  his  in 
terest  in  writing  letters.  "  Letter-writing," 
he  said,  "  was  a  different  thing  from  common 
plays."  His  mother  admitted  that  it  was  a 
different  thing,  in  many  respects ;  and  there 
the  conversation  ended.  Rollo  went  back  to 
his  desk,  and  began  a  letter  to  Lucy. 

After  he  had  written  a  few  lines,  he  seemed 
to  pause.  He  leaned  his  elbow  upon  the 
desk,  and  resting  his  cheek  upon  his  hand, 
he  appeared,  for  a  time,  to  be  in  deep  thought  • 
either  considering  what  hn  should  say  next, 


THE    SUSPENSION.  t>3 

or  else  lost  in  a  reverie  upon  some  other  sub 
ject.  At  length  he  suddenly  looked  up  to  his 
mother,  and  said, 

"  Mother  ?  " 
4  What,  my  son,"  she  replied. 

"  I  might  warm  my  feet  at  my  fireplace." 

"  So  you  might,"  said  his  mother,  without, 
however,  paying  much  attention  to  what  he 
was  saying. 

"If  there  was  only  a  sliding  place  near 
there,"  added  Rollo,  speaking  partly  to  him 
self  and  partly  to  his  mother. 

"  A  sliding  place  where  ? "  asked  his 
mother. 

"  Why,  near  my  fireplace.  You  see,  moth 
er,  if  there  was  only  a  hill,  near  my  fire 
place,  I  might  slide  down  hill  while  Jonas 
is  there  at  work  ;  and  so,  when  my  feet  were 
cold,  T  could  go  and  warm  them  by  my  fire. 
I  believe  I'll  go  and  see." 

"  It  is  almost  dinner  time,"  said  his  mother  ; 
"wouldn't  it  be  better  to  wait  until  after 
dinner,  and  go  then." 

"O,  I  am  not  going  to  slide  now,"  said 
Rollo  ;  "only  to  see  if  there  is  a  place  where 
I  can  make  a  coast  there.  I  can  run  down 
to  my  fireplace  in  a  very  few  Diinut.cs." 


Gl 

Rollo  \vcnt  accordingly  ;  and  he  found  that 
there  was  i  piece  of  descending  ground,  very 
near,  which  Jonas  thought  would  make  a  fine 
coast,  as  soon  as  it  should  be  well  worn.  He 
determined,  therefore,  to  come  down  imme 
diately  after  dinner,  and  wear  it. 

When  he  got  back  to  the  house,  he  wrote  a 
line  or  two  more  upon  his  letter  ;  but  his  heart 
was  upon  his  new  coast.  He  was  very  glad 
when  the  dinner  bell  rang.  After  dinner  he 
concluded  to  put  away  his  letter,  and  finish  it 
at  some  other  time.  He  placed  it  carefully  in 
his  desk,  for  he  always  kept  his  desk  in  good 
order,  and  then  trundled  his  desk  back  into 
its  place.  It  was  upon  castors,  so  that  he 
could  move  it  about  easily  ;  and  there  was  a 
particular  part  of  the  room  where  he  was  ac 
customed  to  keep  it,  when  he  had  it  in  the 
parlor. 

Rollo  got  very  much  interested  in  his  new 
coasting  place,  and  he  spent  all  his  play  hours, 
for  a  good  many  days,  in  sliding  upon  it : 
sometimes  alone,  and  sometimes  with  other 
boys  whom  he  invited  to  come  and  slide  with 
him.  One  day  his  mother  let  him  lead  Na 
than  down  ;  and  he  took  him  upon  his  slea 
before  him,  and  gave  him  several  good  slides. 


THE    SUSPENSION.  67 

He  thought  about  his  unfinished  letter,  two 
or  three  times,  but  he  did  not  feel  exactly  like 
working  upon  it,  and  at  length  it  passed  en 
tirely  away  from  his  thoughts  ;  and  for  sev 
eral  months  after  this,  Rolio  neither  wiote 
nor  received  any  letters. 


68 


SCHOOL    AT    HOME. 

THE  winter  passed  away,  and  the  summer 
came.  Hollo  did  not  go  to  school.  There 
was  no  good  school  near.  So  his  mother 
asked  him  how  he  should  like  a  school 
at  home. 

Rollo  said  that  he  should  like  it  very  much 
indeed. 

His  mother  told  him  that  the  difficulty 
would  be  to  arrange  his  work,  so  that  it  should 
not  be  a  constant  source  of  interruption  to  her, 
or  to  his  father. 

"  However,"  said  she,  "  we  will  try  the 
experiment." 

So  his  mother  formed  a  plan,  and  it  was 
as  follows :  — 

She  placed  his  little  desk  in  her  own 
room,  by  the  window,  in  one  corner.  By  the 
side  of  his  desk  was  a  little  table,  with  an  hour 
glass  upon  it.  The  hour-glass  was  made  with 
two  hollow  places,  above  and  below,  and  a 
narrow  opening  in  the  middle,  leading  from 


SCHOOL    AT    HOME.  69 

DUO  to  the  other.  There  was  some  fine  red 
sand  in  the  hour-glass,  which  would  all  run 
through  into  the  lower  part;  and  then  when 
the  glass  was  turned  bottom  upwards,  the 
part  containing  the  sand  was  up,  and  the 
empty  part  down.  Then  the  sand  would  run 
down  again,  through  the  opening,  into  the 
empty  part  below,  and  keep  running  slowly 
until  it  had  all  run  through. 

It  took  the  sand  just  an  hour  to  run  through 
the  opening.  They  made  it  so  on  purpose. 
For,  after  they  had  made  the  glass,  and  bored 
the  hole,  they  were  then  careful  to  put  in  just 
sand  enough  to  be  an  hour  running  through. 
That  is  the  reason  why  it  was  called  an  hour 
glass.  In  some  glasses  they  put  in  only 
enough  sand  to  be  half  an  hour  running 
through.  Then  it  is  called  a  half-hour-glass 
And  sometimes  they  put  in  so  little,  that  it 
will  run  through  in  a  minute  ;  and  in  this 
case  they  make  the  glass  very  small  too  ;  and 
they  call  it  a  minttfc-glats. 

Hollo's  mother  put  the  hour-glass  on  the 
little  table,  by  the  side  of  Rollo's  desk,  in 
order  that  he  might  know  how  long  to  study. 
When  the  desk,  and  the  hour-glass,  and  all 


70  ROLLO'S    CORRESPONDENCE. 

his  books  Avere  ready,  his  mother  led  him  in 
there,  and  then  said, 

"  Now,  Rollo,  here  is  your  study." 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  like  it  very  much." 

'•  It  looks  pleasant  to  you  now,  but  you 
will  be  tired  enough  of  it,  I  expect,  a  great 
many  times." 

Rollo  did  not  make  any  reply. 

"  Every  morning,  after  breakfast,  now,  you 
must  come  immediately  here,  and  commence 
your  studies." 

"  And  shall  you  be  my  teacher  ?  " 

"  Why,  yes,  —  I  shall  tell  you  generally 
what  you  are  to  do,  —  but  then,  after  that, 
you  must  go  on  alone." 

"  Only,  if  I  have  any  questions,  I  can  ask 
you." 

"  No,"  said  his  mother,  "  I  shall  be  away, 
perhaps,  or  I  shall  be  busy,  and,  at  any  rate,  I 
shall  not  want  to  be  interrupted.  I  can  de 
vote  ten  or  fifteen  minutes,  every  morning,  to 
looking  over  the  work  you  did  the  day  be 
fore,  and  telling  you  what  more  to  do  ;  but 
I  cannot  have  rny  whole  morning  broken  in 
upon." 

"Then  I  can  ask  father,"  said  Roilo. 


SCHOOL    AT    HOME.  71 

"No,"  said  his  mother,  "father  will  be  en 
gaged  too." 

"  Not  so  but  that  he  can  answer  my  ques 
tions,"  said  Hollo. 

"He  cannot  always  answer  them  conve 
niently,"  said  his  mother.  "  If  a  boy  has 
liberty  to  go  and  ask  his  parents  questions 
about  his  studies  any  time,  he  will  be  inter 
rupting  them  continually.  Their  time  would 
be  entirely  at  his  mercy ;  and  no  parents 
could  instruct  their  children  at  home  in  that 
way. 

"  Besides,"  continued  his  mother,  "  I  want 
yon  to  learn  co  study  in  solitude,  and  to  rely 
upon  your  own  resources.  You  will  be 
obliged  to  do  it  in  college,  and  when  you  are 
a  man  ;  and  you  musf  learn  now." 

"  But,  mother,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  must  ask 
questions  sometimes,  or  else  I  shall  not  know 
what  to  do." 

"Yes,  —  I -will  tell  you  beforehand,"  said 
she,  "  what  to  do  in  every  possible  contin 
gency." 

"  Contingency  ?  "  said  Rollo,  —  what  is  con 
tingcnry  1 ' 

"  Why,  every  possible  case  that  may 
chance  to  happen." 


72  HOLLO'S  CORRESPONDENCE. 

"  O,  mother ! "  said  Rollo,  you  cannot 
tell  me,  beforehand,  what  to  do  in  every 
possible  case/' 

"  I  will  try,  at  any  rate,"  said  she.  "  In 
the  first  place,  you  are  to  study  arithmetic 
two  hours  every  morning,  the  first  thing. 
Now;  what  difficulties  are  there  that  you  may 
get  into  in  that  study,  which  I  must  provide 
against  ?  " 

"  Why,  I  might  riot  know  how  to  do  the 
sums,"  replied  Rollo. 

11  True  ;  to  guard  against  that,  I  will  ex 
plain  to  you  generally,  every  morning,  the 
nature  of  the  sums  that  come  in  that  day's 
lesson  ;  so  that  you  will  know  how  to  pro 
ceed  in  doing  them.  .If  any  should  come 
wrong,  you  must  look  over  them,  and  see  if 
you  can  find  the  error  ;  if  you  cannot,  you 
must  leave  them  upon  the  slate,  for  me  to 
see  the  next  morning,  and  then  pass  on  to 
the  next  sum  ;  and  so  keep  trying  the  sums 
in  succession,  until  the  two  hours  have  ex 
pired.  If  you  get  so  completely  into  diffi 
culty  that  you  do  not  know  at  all  what  to 
do,  then  you  may  shut  up  your  Arithmetic, 
and  set  yourself  sums  in  addition,  or  in  any 
of  the  rules  that  you  have  gore  over,  and  do 


SCHOOL    AT    HOME.  73 

them.      Now,  are  not  all    contingencies  in 
respect  to  doing  sums  provided  for  ?  " 

"  Why,  yes,"  said  Rollo  ;  "  but  —  but,  — 
perhaps  I  shall  not  have  any  slate-pencil.'' 

His  mother  did  not  answer  this  suggestion 
in  words,  but  she  lifted  up  the  lid  of  Rollo's 
desk,  and  pointed  to  a  little  box  there,  con 
taining  a  considerable  number  of  slate-pen 
cils,  all  ready  for  use.  They  were  all  rather 
short,  but  they  were  .ground  smooth  and 
handsome,  and  with  long,  slender  points. 
Jonas  had  prepared  them  by  grinding  them 
upon  the  grindstone,  at  the  barn. 

"  You  see,"  said  she,  pointing  to  the  pen 
cils,  "  that  that  case  is  provided  for." 

"  Yes,  mother,"  said  Rollo  ;  "  what  beau 
tiful  pencils !  " 

"  But,  perhaps,  I  shall  lose  my  slate," 
continued  Rollo. 

"  How  can  you  lose  your  slate  ?  " 

"  Why,  I  may  possibly  take  it  away 
some  time,  and  then  forget  to  bring  it  back." 

"  True,  you  may.     In  that  case  you  must 
not   trouble   any  body   about   it,  by  asking 
them  if  they   have   seen   it ;  but  simply  gq 
and  find  it  yourself." 
d  7 


74 


"  But  suppose  I  cannot  find  it,"  said 
Rollo. 

"  You  must  go  on  looking  for  it  fahhfuliy 
and  carefully,  until  the  two  hours  are  gone." 

"  What,  two  whole  hours  *  " 

11  Yes,  if  you  do  not  find  it  before.  And 
you  must  consider  the  tediousness  of  such  a 
long  search  as  your  proper  punishment  for 
not  having  taken  care  of  it." 

Rollo  smiled,  but  did  not  make  any  objec 
tion. 

"  Now,  are  not  all  contingencies  in  respect 
to  the  two  hours  for  arithmetic  provided 
for  ?  "  said  his  mother. 

"  Why,  yes  ;  though  there  may  be  some 
thing  which  we  have  not  thought  of.  There 
may  be  some  difficulty,  different  from  any  of 
these." 

"  If  there  should  be,"  continued  his  moth 
er,  "  any  thing  which,  after  all  I  have  said, 
absolutely  prevents  your  studying  arithmetic 
in  any  way,  then  I  would  rather  not  have 
you  come  and  ask  me  any  questions,  but 
employ  yourself  in  any  useful  way  you  think 
best,  until  the  next  morning,  when  the  reg- 
alar  time  will  come  for  me  to  attend  to 
you." 


SCHOOL    AT    HOME.  75 

"  Well,  mother,  I  will,"  said  Rollo. 

"  So  now  two  hours  for  arithmetic  are 
provided  for.  Then  you  may  have  a  few 
minutes  recess." 

"  How  shall  I  know  when  ?  "    said  Rollo. 

11  Why,  when  the  hour-glass  has  run  out 
the  second  time." 

"  O,  yes,"  said  Rollo. 

"  You  may  have  a  few  mii.utes  recess, 
just  to  take  a  little  run,  to  see  what  Jonas  is 
doing,  or  to  have  a  little  play  with  Nathan. 
Then,  when  you  come  in,  you  must  turn  the 
hour-glass  again,  and  begin  another  hour. 
This  last  hour  you  must  spend  in  writing." 

"  What  shall  I  write  ?  " 

"  Any  thing  you  please,  only  you  must 
write  it  carefully  and  well." 

"  Who'll  set  me  a  copy?  " 

"It  is  not  necessary  for  you  to  have  a 
copy.  I  don't  care  at  all  about  your  writing 
like  any  body  else.  I  only  want  you  to 
write  well.  Now,  if  you  write  an  hour  every 
day,  and  take  pains  to  form  your  letters 
uniformly,  regularly,  and  with  care,  you  will 
very  soon  learn  to  write  well  ;  though 
your  hand  will  not  be  modelled  after  any 


76  HOLLO'S  CORRESPONDENCE. 

particular  master's,  and  I  shall  like  it  all  the 
better  for  that." 

"  The  better  ?  "    asked  Rollo. 

"  Yes,"  said  his  mother.  "  It  is  better 
that  every  gentleman  should  have  his  own 
individual  hand,  different  from  those  of  other 
people,  rather  than  similar  to  them.  I  shall 
look  at  your  writing  every  morning,  and  if  I 
see  any  letters  which  you  form  badly,  in  any 
way,  I  will  show  you  how  to  form  them 
better,  and  so  far  as  that  is  concerned,  I  will 
set  you  copies  ;  but  it  is  not  at  all  necessary 
that  you  should  have  a  full  copy  set  for  you 
every  day." 

"  I  have  not  got  any  writing-book,"  said 
Rollo. 

"  I  know  it ;  but  here  is  plenty  of  paper." 

So  Rollo's  mother  opened  his  desk,  and 
showed  him  a  quantity  of  paper  in  one  cor 
ner,  in  half  sheets.  "  There,"  said  she, 
"  every  day  take  out  one  of  those  half  sheets, 
and  write  upon  it.  There  is  a  ruler  and  two 
pencils  for  you  to  rule  the  lines." 

"  What  are  there  two  for?"  asked  Rolio. 

"  Why,  you  may  perhaps  lose  one." 

"  But  I  can't  rule  straight,"    said  Rollo. 

"  No  matter,"  said  his  mother  ;  "  you  cac 


SCHOOL    AT    HOME.  77 

rule  straight  enough  to  write  for  the  purpose 
of  learning  ;  for  you  see  you  can  take  pains, 
and  form  your  letters  smoothly,  and  uni* 
formly,  and  regularly,  whether  your  lines  are 
exactly  parallel  or  not.  Besides,  you  must 
learn  to  rule  straight.  That  is  important,  as 
well  as  learning  w  write." 

"  Well,  mother,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  will  try  ; 
but  you  have  not  told  me  what  to  write." 

"  You  may  write  any  thing.  You  may 
write  an  account  of  what  you  did  the  day 
before,  or  what  you  are  going  to  do.  Or  you 
may  write  a  story  to  read  to  Nathan  ;  or,  if 
you  choose,  you  may  fold  over  a  half  sheet 
of  paper  into  the  form  of  a  note,  and  write  a 
note  to  me,  or  to  father.  Or  you  may  write 
a  letter  to  Jonas,  or  to  any  body.  You  have 
not  written  any  letters  for  a  long  time.  But 
whatever  you  write,  it  must  be  written 
slowly,  carefully,  and  well,  and  shown  to  me 
the  next  morning  after  you  have  written  it." 

"  Suppose  my  pen  gets  bad,"  said  Rollo. 

"  I  have  mended  you  a  dozen  pens," 
sail  his  mother,  in  reply  ;  and  so  saying,  she 
went  to  her  own  table,  in  another  part  of  the 
room,  and  opened  a  drawer.  She  found  in 
the  drawer  a  large  number  of  pens,  which 
7* 


78  ROLLOrS    CORRESPONDENCE. 

she  brought  to  Rollo,  and  gave  him.  Hollo 
put  them  into  his  desk. 

"  Now  you  must  be  economical  and 
careful  in  using  the  pens,"  said  his 
mother,  "  and  not  change  them  too  often. 
There  are  enough  to  last  you  a  week  or 
fortnight.  Whenever  one  becomes  decidedly 
bad,  you  may  wipe  it  clean  with  your  little 
pen-wiper,  and  put  it  away,  and  take  another. 
Then  to-morrow  morning  I  will  mend  those 
that. have  been  spoiled  ;  but  I  expect  it  will 
not  be  more  than  one  or  two  in  a  morn 
ing. 

"  Still,"  continued  she,  "  it  is  possible, 
after  all,  that  something  may  occur  which 
will  prevent  your  writing." 

"What?"    said  Rollo. 

11  O,  I  don't  know,"  said  she.  "  By  and 
by,  after  several  days,  or  weeks,  you  may 
get  out  of  ink  ;  or  somebody  may  possibly 
have  taken  your  ink-stand  away,  or  your 
paper  may  get  exhausted,  and  you  may  for 
get  to  ask  me  for  any  more  at  the  right 
time." 

''  Well,  and  what  shall  I  do  then?"  said 
j  —  «  come  and  ask  you  for  some  ?  " 

"  No,   by   no   means,"    said    his    mother. 


SCHOOL    AT    HOME.  79 

"  this  whole  experiment  is  a  plan  to  guard 
against  my  being  interrupted  at  irregular 
hours,  to  give  you  instruction.  So  you  must 
not,  on  any  account,  come  to  me." 

"  What  shall  I  do,  then  ?  —  I  can  read," 
said  Rollo,  looking  up  quickly,  as  the  idea 
struck  him.  "  I  can  have  some  of  my  books 
here,  and  read." 

"  No,"  replied  she  ;  "  that  will  not  do,  fox 
reading  is  easier  and  pleasanter  than  writing, 
and  so  you  will  not  care  much  if  you  should 
get  into  some  difficulty,  and  be  obliged  to 
put  away  your  writing.  We  must  have 
some  plan  which  will  substitute  something 
less  agreeable  than  the  writing,  and  that 
will  operate  as  an  inducement  for  you  to 
keep  your  things  in  order,  and  so  go  on  reg 
ularly." 

"  Well,  mother,  what  shall  it  be  ?  "  asked 
Rollo. 

"  You  may  write  on  your  slate,  instead  of 
writing  upon  paper.  And  if  there  should  be 
any  difficulty  in  your  writing  upon  your 
slate,  so  that  you  cannot  possibly  do  that 
either,  then  I  would  rather  not  have  you  come 
to  me,  but  sit  still  till  the  hour  is  out." 


80  ROLLO'S    CORRESPONDENCE. 

"Well,"  said  Hollo,  drawing  a  long  breath, 
"I  believe  I  understand." 

"  There  is  one  thing  more,"  said  his  mo 
ther,  "  and  then  I  believe  that  every  con 
tingency  will  be  provided  for.  Something 
very  extraordinary  indeed  may  happen,  which 
we  have  not  thought  of  at  all,  and  prevent 
your  studying  altogether." 

u  O,  mother,"  said  R,ollo,  "  how  can  it  1" 

"  Why,  suppose  I  should  lock  my  room, 
and  go  away  somewhere,  carrying  the  key 
with  me,  inadvertently." 

"  Why,  then,  I  could  not  study,  I  know," 
said  liollo. 

"  Now,  if  any  thing  very  extraordinary, 
like  that,  should  occur,  even  then  I  should 
rather  not  have  you  ask  any  body  what  to 
do.  I  should  prefer  to  have  you  exercise 
your  own  discretion,  and  do  what  you  sup 
pose  I  should  prefer." 

"  Why,  mother,  it  would  not  take  but  a 
minute  to  ask  father,  if  he  was  at  home." 

"  I  know  it  would  not ;  but  my  object  is 
not  merely  to  save  us  trouble,  by  this  ar- 
rar.goment,  —  I  want  to  get  you  into  habits 
of  self-government  and  control.  When  you 


SCHOOL    AT    HOME.  81 

grow  up  and  become  a  man,  there  will  not 
be,  as  there  s  now,  somebody  for  you  to  run 
to,  at  every  little  difficulty  ;  but  you  will  be 
compelled  to  judge  for  yourself;  and  rely  on 
your  own  resources  ;  and  I  want  to  have  you 
learn  the  art  while  you  are  a  boy.  Though 
it  is,  still,  a  great  part  of  my  object  to  save 
myself  trouble.  If  I  can  get  things  in  such  a 
train,  that  you  can  go  on  and  study  three  hours 
regularly  and  successfully  every  day,  without 
my  having  any  more  trouble  than  to  spend  a 
few  minutes  at  the  beginning  of  the  time, 
*hen  I  can  take  charge  of  your  education,  a 
good  deal,  at  home,  instead  of  sending  you 
to  school  all  the  time.  But  if  parents  are 
obliged  to  sit  by  their  children  while  they 
are  studying,  to  answer  questions,  or  even  to 
be  always  exposed  to  interruption  from  them, 
you  see  it  would  take  up  so  much  of  our 
time,  and  interfere  so  much  with  our  other 
occupations,  that  we  could  not  attend  to  it. 
So  I  want  to  arrange  the  business  in  such  a 
way,  as  that  I  shall  give  you  all  the  instruc 
tions  necessary,  at  one  time,  in  the  morning  ; 
and  then  be  effectually  protected  from  all 
interruption  for  the  rest  of  the  day.'T 


82 

Roilo  was,  on  the  whole,  well  pleased 
with  the  plan  of  trying  the  experiment  ;  and 
so  his  mother,  recommending  to  him  to  be 
faithful  and  patient  in  case  any  difficulties 
should  occur,  left  him  to  himself,  at  his  little 
desk  in  the  corner. 


83 


STUDY   HOURS   AND    PLAY    HOURS. 

HOLLO  went  on  very  pleasantly  for  two  01 
three  days  in  studying  50/0  ;  though  he  made 
some  mistakes.  For  instance,  on  the  first  day, 
just  after  his  mother  had  left  him,  on  looking 
into  his  arithmetic,  there  was  one  "sum" 
which  he  did  not  know  certainly  whether  he 
was  to  do,  or  not ;  and  so  he  jumped  up,  and 
ran  out  to  ask  his  mother. 

•'•  I  can't  tell  you  any  thing  about  it/'  said 
his  mother. 

"  Why,  mother,  just  tell  me  whether  it  is 
to  be  done  or  not.  I  don't  want  you  to  show 
me  how  to  do  it." 

His  mother  made  no  reply,  but  simply  put 
her  finger  to  her  lips,  in  token  of  her  having 
not  a  word  to  say.  She  smiled,  however,  at 
the  same  time,  which  indicated  that  she  was 
not  particularly  displeased  with  Rollo  for  com 
ing  to  ask  ;  but  she  shook  her  head,  and  kept 
her  finger  upon  her  lips,  as  if  to  say  that  she 


84  HOLLO'S  COHRESPCNDENCE. 

could  not,  on  any  account,  say  a  word  tc  him 
about  it. 

In  fact,  Rollo  ought  not  to  have  gone  to 
ask  her.  It  would  have  been  better  to  have 
performed  the  doubtful  problem  at  once,  for 
that  could  have  done  no  harm,  certainly. 
He  went  back,  somewhat  out  of  humor  with 
his  mother  for  not  being  willing  to  answer 
him.  The  ill  humor  soon  wore  off,  however, 
and  then,  for  several  days,  he  went  along 
very  smoothly.  His  mother  generally  spent 
ten  minutes  with  him  in  the  morning,  before 
he  commenced  his  studies,  explaining  to  him 
the  difficulties  which  he  had  encountered  the 
day  before,  and  giving  him  general  directions. 

One  morning,  however,  after  a  few  days, 
Rollo  got  weary  uf  studying.  It  was  a  warm 
and  pleasant  morning,  and  he  wanted  to  be 
out  to  play.  His  sums  did  not  come  right ; 
though  this  was  because  he  was  not  so  care 
ful  and  attentive  as  usual.  Rollo  was  not  to 
blame  for  being  weary  of  studying  ;  all  stu 
dents  are  so  sometimes.  But  he  ought  not 
to  have  given  way  to  this  feeling  of  weariness. 
There  is  no  particular  merit  in  studying  dili 
gently,  while  the  freshness  p.rid  interest  of  the 


HE   TOOK    UP    HIS    HOUR    GLASS.  Page    87, 


STtJDY    HOURS    AND    PLAY    HOURS.  87 

study  continues.  It  requires  no  effort  to  do 
that.  The  praise  of  diligence  and  persever 
ance  is  not  deserved,  until  the  novelty  and 
pleasure  of  the  employment  is  worn  off,  and 
the  student  is  urged  on  by  a  sense  of  duty. 
But  Rollo,  as  soon  as  he  began  to  feel  a  little 
tired  of  studying,  began  to  be  idle. 

First  he  amused  himself  for  several  minutes, 
by  an  old  contrivance  of  idle  boys  in  school, 
namely,  rolling  his  pencil  down  his  slate,  as 
it  lay  inclined  upon  the  desk.  The  pencil 
being  polygonal  in  form,  that  is,  having  a 
good  many  sides,  instead  of  being  perfectly 
round,  it  made  a  sharp,  rattling  sound  in  roll 
ing  down.  This  would  not  seem  to  be  a 
very  elevated  species  of  enjoyment,  but  it  is 
generally  found  sufficient  to  amuse  idle  boys. 

After  a  time,  however,  Rollo  got  tired  of 
hearing  his  pencil  rattle  down  the  slate,  and 
then  he  began  to  look  out  the  window,  and 
wish  that  his  hour  was  out.  He  took  up  his 
hour-glass,  and  began  to  shake  it,  to  make 
the  sand  run  faster  ;  but  it  seemed  to  run 
slower  instead  of  faster,  for  the  shaking. 

At  length  he  opened  his  desk,  and  began 
looking  over  the  books  and  papers  ;  and,  pres 
ently,  he  came  upon  the  old  letter  to  Lucy, 


which  he  had  begun  months  before,  and  left 
unfinished  until  now.  He  took  it  out  of  his 
desk,  and  read  what  he  had  written.  He  re 
membered  the  pleasure  and  satisfaction  which 
he  had  enjoyed  in  writing  and  receiving  let 
ters,  and  he  accordingly  concluded  to  finish 
this  letter  and  send  it,  and  then  to  write  some 
others.  His  mother  had  given  him  leave  to 
write  letters,  or  any  thing  else,  during  one 
of  the  hours  that  he  had  to  spend  at  his  desk  ; 
and  so  he  concluded  that  he  had  a  very  fine 
opportunity  to  renew  his  correspondence. 

He  finished  his  letter  to  Lucy,  and  then 
folded  and  sealed  it ;  and  happening  accident 
ally  to  observe  the  hour-glass  at  the  moment 
when  he  was  putting  in  the  wafer,  he  saw 
that  the  sand  was  out,  and  of  course  his  hour 
was  expired,  and  he  was  at  liberty  to  go  and 
play.  He,  however,  carefully  finished  his  let 
ter  ;  and  then  he  had  a  great  mind  to  write 
another  to  Jonas,  instead  of  going  out. 

"  And  then,  perhaps,"  said  he  to  himself 
"  I  shall  have  an  answer  from  him  by  to 
morrow,  when  I  am  ready  to  write  again." 

So  he  took  another  piece  of  paper,  and  be 
gan  to  write. 

He  had  advanced  about  half  way  down  th« 


STUDY    HOURS     AND    PLAY    HOURS.  89 

first  page,  when  his  mother  came  into  the 
room  with  a  work-basket  in  her  hands. 

"  O,  Hollo,"  said  she,  "  are  you  here  ?  " 

"  Yes,  mother,"  said  Hollo  :  still,  however, 
going  on  with  his  writing. 

"  As  busy  as  a  bee.  But  isn't  your  time 
out  ?  Yes,"  said  she,  as  she  came  up  and 
looked  at  his  hour-glass.  "  Yes,  the  sand  is 
all  gone.  Why  ain't  you  out  to  play  ?  " 

"  See,  mother,"  said  Hollo,  holding  up  the 
letter  which  he  had  finished.  "  All  done  up 
and  sealed.  Though  I  wish,  now,  I  had  kept 
it  open,  so  as  to  show  it  to  you." 

"  And  what  are  you  writing,  now  ?  "  asked 
his  mother,  as  she  went  and  put  her  work- 
basket  down  upon  her  table. 

"  I  am  beginning  a  letter  to  Jonas.  Don't 
you  think  it  is  a  good  plan  ?  " 

"  I  am  not  certain  that  it  is  a  good  plan  to 
do  it  now  ?  " 

"  Why  not,  mother?  r  said  Hollo,  with  sur 
prise. 

"  Because  it  is  play  hours." 

Hollo  was  much  surprised  to  hear  his  moth 
er  speak   as  if  she  had  any  objection  to  his 
studying  or  writing  in  play  hours.    He  paused 
d*  8* 


90  HOLLO'S  CORRESPONDENCE. 

from  his  work,  and  sat  in  silence,  wondering 
what  shu  could  mean. 

"  Well,  mother,"  said  Rollo,  at  length, 
"  and  what  harm  can  there  be  in  writing  let 
ters  in  play  hours?  " 

"  I  am  not  certain  that  there  is  any  harm. 
I  did  not  say  that  I  knew  it  was  a  bad  plan, 
but  only  that  I  was  not  certain  that  it  was  a 
good  plan." 

"  And  why  not,  mother? "  said  Rollo. 

By  this  time,  however,  Rollo's  mother  had 
spread  out  some  calico  upon  her  table,  and 
was  carefully  adjusting  a  paper  pattern  upon 
it,  in  order  to  cut  out  a  garment  for  Nathan. 
Her  attention  seemed  to  be  absorbed  in  her 
work,  and  she  did  not  answer  Rollo. 

"  Mother,"  repeated  Rollo,  "  what  harm  is 
there  in  it  ?  " 

"  Let  me  see,"  said  his  mother,  looking 
still  intently  upon  her  work,  and  shifting  the 
pattern  to  another  corner  of  the  calico,  to  see 
if  it  would  come  out  any  better  there. 

"  O  dear  me  !  "  said  Rollo. 

"What's  the  matter,  Rollo?"  said  his 
mother;  still,  however,  keeping  her  eyes 
upon  her  work 


STUDY    HOURri    AND    PLAY    HOURS.  91 

"  I  wish  you  would  just  tell  me  what  harm 
there  is  in  writing  letters  in  play  hours." 

"  Well,  Rollo,  I  am  very  busy  planning, 
just  now  ;  but  if  you  will  send  me  youc  ques 
tion  in  writing,  to-morrow,  I  will  reply  in  the 
same  way." 

"  In  writing  ?  "  said  Rollo.  not  exactly  un 
derstanding  what  his  mother  meant. 

"Yes,"  she  replied  ;  "that  is,  write  me  a 
little  note,  and  put  the  question  in  the  note." 

"  Well,  mother,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  will.  I 
will  write  the  note  now." 

"  No,  not  now,"  said  she  ;  "  not  until  the 
regular  hour  for  writing  comes,  to-morrow." 

Rollo  wondered  why  his  mother  was  not 
willing  that  he  should  write  the  letter  then  ; 
but,  as  he  perceived  that  she  was  very  much 
engaged,  he  did  not  trouble  her  by  asking  any 
more  questions.  And  as  she  had  expressed 
some  doubt  about  his  writing  even  to  Jonas, 
at  that  time,  he  concluded  to  put  his  writing 
in  his  desk,  and  go  out  to  play.  The  letters, 
which  he  wrote  and  received  for  several  suc 
cessive  days  after  this,  are  given  in  the  next 
chaptei . 


92 


MORE    LETTERS. 
LETTER  I.  —  Rollo  to  his  Mother. 

"  Study  Hours. 

«  Dear  Mother, 

"I  have  put  off  writing  to  you  until 
now,  according  to  your  request.  What  I 
wanted  to  know,  is,  why  you  thought  it  could 
possibly  be  a  bad  plan  for  me  to  write  my 
letters  in  play  hours.  I  thought,  myself,  that 
it  would  be  an  excellent  plan,  and  that  you 
would  like  it ;  for  writing  letters  is  something 
like  studying,  and  I  thought  you  liked  to 
have  me  study  as  much  as  possible.  Please 
answer  this  as  soon  as  you  conveniently  can, 
and  believe  me 

"  Your  affectionate  and  dutiful  son, 

«  ROLLO." 

LETTER  II.  —  Rollo  to  Jonas. 

"Wednesday  Morning. 

"  Dear  Jonas, 

"  It  is  a  long  time  since  I  wrote  to  you  ; 
and  now  I  am  going  to  begin  writing  letters 


MORE    LETTERS  93 

again.  What  I  want  to  say  new  is  this  •  A 
great  while  ago  you  promised  me  that  you 
would 

"  Thursday,  10  o'clock. 

"  I  wrote  so  much  yesterday,  after  study 
hours,  and  mother  came  just  as  I  had  finished 
writing  the  would,  and  she  advised  me  not  to 
write  any  letters  in  play  hours.  So  I  put  it 
away  until  to-day;  and  now,  as  the  time  for 
writing  letters  in  my  study  hours  has  come,  1 
am  going  to  finish  it.  I  have  written  a  letter 
to  my  mother  to  know  why  she  is  not  willing 
to  have  me  write  letters  any  time  of  the  day. 
What  do  you  think  the  reason  can  be  ? 

"  But  I  was  begi lining  to  say  that  you 
promised  me,  a  great  while  ago,  that  you 
would  show  me  how  to  draw;  —  and  now. 
when  will  you  do  it?  I  wish  you  would 
write  me  a  letter  about  drawing ;  and  then, 
you  know,  I  could  read  it,  and  follow  your 
directions.  That  would  be  better  than  to 
have  you  tell  me  ;  for  if  you  were  to  tell 
me,  I  might  forget,  but  if  you  write  it,  I  can 
look  at  the  letter  at  any  time,  and  so  always 
remember. 

"I  am,  very  sincerely,  your  friend, 

"  ROI.LO." 


94  HOLLO'S  CORRESPONDENCE. 

LETTER  III.  —  Rollo's  Mother  to  Rollo. 

"  Thursday  Evening,  10  o'clock. 

"  My  dear  Hollo, 

"  You  are  now  sound  asleep,  as  1  sup 
pose  ;  the  house  is  still,  and  my  day's  work  is 
done.  Before  I  follow  your  example,  I  am 
going  to  answer  your  note. 

"  The  reason  why  I  doubted  whether  it 
was  wise  for  you  to  write  letters  in  play 
hours,  is  this :  It  is  difficult  for  children  to 
find  sources  of  interest  and  pleasure  in  con 
nection  with  their  studies ;  but  it  is  easy 
enough  to  find  them  for  plays.  When,  there 
fore,  you  find  any  thing  in  your  studies  which 
pleases  you,  it  is  best  to  preserve  the  enjoy 
ment  for  the  hours  of  study,  which  would 
otherwise  be  tiresome  ;  and  not  exhaust  it  in 
play  hours,  when  you  have  plenty  of  other 
means  of  enjoyment.  This  pleasure  of  wri 
ting  letters,  for  example,  will  riot  last  very 
long,  —  and  it  would  be  especially  evanescent 
if  you  were  to  give  yourself  up  to  it  ac  aii 
hours,  as  long  as  it  should  last.  But  if  you 
economize  the  pleasure,  and  preserve  it  ioi 
the  hour  when  you  will  especially  need  it,  it 
will  last  much  longer,  and  sweeten  a  good 
many  hours  of  toil.  By  taking  an  y  one  of  the 


MORE    LETTERS.  95 

enjoyments  of  study,  and  making  a  mere 
means  of  amusement  of  it,  you  rob  the  study 
hours  of  what  they  can  ill  spare,  for  the  sake 
of  giving  to  play  hours  that  of  which  they 
already  have  enough.  That  is  the  philosophy 
of  it,  I  believe. 

"  Now,  I  think  it  very  probable  that,  as  you 
postponed  your  letter  to  Jonas,  and  the  one 
you  were  intending  to  write  to  me,  until  the 
regular  hour  for  writing,  you  looked  forward 
to  that  hour  with  much  greater  interest  and 
pleasure  than  you  commonly  do.  Whereas, 
if  you  had  written  the  letters  for  mere  amuse 
ment,  in  your  play  hours,  the  interest  and 
pleasure  would  have  been  soon  exhausted, 
and  then,  when  your  hour  for  writing  had 
come,  you  would  have  had  nothing  to  write 
which  would  have  interested  you,  and  the 
occupation  would  be  only  a  dull  and  tiresome 
duty. 

"  But  good  night ;  it  is  time  for  me  to  go 
lo  bed.  From 

"MOTHER." 


96  HOLLO'S  CORRESPONDENCE. 

LETTER  IV.  —  Hollo  to  his  Mother. 

"  Friday 

"  Dear  Mother, 

"I  have  read  the  letter  which  you 
wrote  me  yesterday,  and  I  am  much  obliged 
to  you  for  it.  I  could  not  imagine  what  rea 
son  you  could  have  for  thinking  I  had  better 
not  write  letters  for  play ;  but  now  I  under 
stand,  and  I  think  it  is  a  very  good  reason  too. 
I  had  a  great  deal  better  time  at  my  studies 
yesterday,  because  I  had  some  letters  to  write ; 
and  in  the  morning  I  was  glad,  and  not  sorry, 
when  the  study  hours  came.  I  have  been 
thinking  that  I  had  better  not  read  my  tetters, 
any  more  than  write  the  answers,  except  in 
study  hours ;  and  I  should  like  to  have  you, 
when  you  write  to  me  again,  leave  the  letter 
in  my  desk,  or  upon  it,  and  then,  when  I  come 
there  to  study,  I  shall  find  it: — only  I  will 
not  open  it  until  my  arithmetic  sand  has  all 
run  out. 

"  Do  you  think,  mother,  it  would  do  for  me 
to  write  a  letter,  sometime,  to  Miss  Mary,  now 
she  has  got  home? 

"  Affectionately,  your  son, 

"  HOLLO." 


MORE    LETTERS.  9V 

LETTER  V.  —  Rollo9  s  Mother  to  Rollo 

"  Friday  Evening. 

"  Dear  Rollo, 

"  I  think  there  is  no  objection  to  your 
writing  to  Miss  Mary.  I  have  not  time  to 
say  any  more  this  evening. 

«  MOTHER." 


LETTER  VI.  —  Jonas  to  Rollo. 

"  Tuesday  Evening. 

"  Dear  Rollo, 

"You  forget  that  there  are  no  even 
ings  now,  and  so  I  cannot  write  any  letters ; 
at  least,  I  cannot  write  any  long  ones.  I  have 
been  waiting  all  this  time  for  an  opportunity 
to  answer  your  letter.  And  now  I  don't  see 
how  I  can  find  time  this  summer  to  write 
you  any  thing  about  drawing.  But  this  I 
will  do;  —  if  you  will  draw  something,  and 
send  it  to  me  in  a  letter,  I  will  mark  it  where 
it  is  wrong,  and  perhaps  draw  another  of  the 
same  kind,  myself,  for  you  to  look  at,  and 
compare  with  yours.  This,  I  think,  will  be  as 
improving  to  you  as  for  me  to  write  you  some 
directions,  —  though  it  will  be  a  new  way  of 
e  9 


98  HOLLO'S  CORRESPONDENCE. 

teaching  for  you  will  in  fact  be  setting  me  a 
cop/. 

"  Good  night. 

"  JONAS." 


LETTER  VII.  —  Rollo  to  Miss  Mary. 

"  My  dear  Teacher, 

"  I  heard,  a  few  days  since,  that  you 
had  come  home,  and  I  mean  to  come  over  and 
see  you  ;  but  first,  mother  has  told  me  I  might 
write  you  a  letter.  I  have  learned  to  write  a 
great  deal  since  I  went  to  your  school. 

"  I  wish  you  would  keep  a  school  again, 
and  that  I  might  go  to  it. 

«  This  is  all  I  have  to  say  now ;  but  I  wish 
you  would  write  me  a  good  long  letter. 
"  I  am,  very  affectionately,  yours, 

«  ROLLO." 


LETTER  VIII.  —  Lucy  to  Hollo. 

"  Dear  Rollo, 

"  I  am  very  glad  you  finished  that  old 
letter,  and  sent  it  to  me.  I  have  been  busy 
all  this  afternoon  at  work  in  my  little  garden ; 


MOUE    LETTERS.  99 

the  flowers  grow  finely.  Do  you  remember 
the  convolvulus  seeds  which  you  gave  me.  I 
planted  them  in  a  row,  all  along  by  the  fence, 
and  they  came  up  finely.  A  little  while  ago, 
I  got  father  to  drive  me  a  row  of  nails  along 
on  the  top  of  the  fence,  and  I  was  going  to 
tie  some  strings  to  them,  for  the  convolvulus 
stems  to  climb  up  upon.  But  now  I  can't  reach 
the  nails  very  well,  and  I  don't  dare  to  climb 
up  upon  the  fence.  I  wish  you  would  come 
over  some  afternoon,  and  climb  along,  and  tie 
the  strings  for  me.  Then  I  think  they  can. 
get  up  very  easily,  for  we  can  drive  some  lit 
tie  stakes  into  the  ground  at  the  bottom,  tu 
tie  the  other  ends  of  the  strings  to.  If  we 
can  only  do  this,  I  think  the  fence  will  be  all 
covered  with  the  flowers  by  and  by. 

"  From  Cousin  LUCY." 


LETTER  IX.  —  Miss  Mary  to  Rollo. 

"  Monday  Evening. 

"  My  dear  Pupil, 

"  I  received  your  little  note,  and  it 
gave  me  a  great  deal  of  pleasure.  I  was  very 
^lad  to  find  that  you  had  not  forgotten  me. 


100  HOLLO'S  CORRESPONDENCE. 

I  was  also  much  pleased  to  find  that  you  had 
made  so  much  improvement  in  your  writing. 
c:  I  have  been  absent  a  long  time,  and  I  feel 
somewhat  fatigued  from  my  many  duties  in 
the  school  where  I  have  been,  and  I  am  be 
sides  pretty  busy  now,  at  home.  So  I  have 
not  time  to  write  you  a  longer  letter  now  ; 
but,  instead  of  it,  I  enclose  for  you  in  this  a 
story,  which  I  wrote  a  little  while  ago,  and 
read  to  some  children. 

"  Very  affectionately,  your  old  teacher, 

"  Miss  MARY." 

The  following  is  the  story  which  was  en 
closed  in  Miss  Mary's  letter. 

CYMON. 

Cymon  was  one  day  tired  of  play.  He  did 
not  know  what  to  do  with  himself.  He  had 
been  making  a  boat,  and  had  cut  two  of  his 
fingers,  and  made  them  all  tender,  with  his 
work ;  and  so  he  felt  uncomfortable  in  body, 
as  well  as  in  mind. 

Cymon's  mother  put  some  cerate  upon  his 
hands,  and  bound  up  the  fingers  which  were 
cut.  This  relieved  the  outward  suffering  ;  but 
that  which  was  within  was  not  so  easily 


MORE    LETTERS.  101 

cured.  He  walked  about  the  house,  not 
knowing  what  to  do.  He  felt  miserable.  He 
wished  that  it  was  tea-time,  bed-time,  —  any 
time,  rather  than  the  beginning  of  a  long  af 
ternoon. 

At  last  Cymon  said  to  himself,  "  I  am  re 
solved  what  to  do.  As  I  cannot  think  of  any 
thing  which  will  give  me  any  pleasure,  I  may 
as  well  go  about,  and  see  if  I  cannot  do  some 
good.  If  I  can  do  a  little,  it  will  be  better 
than  none." 

So  Cymon  walked  along,  to  see  what  good 
he  could  do.  He  went  into  the  shed.  The 
axe  was  lying  down  by  the  wood,  and  he 
took  it  up  and  put  it  into  its  place.  He  put 
the  wood,  too,  in  order  a  little,  so  as  to  make 
the  shed  look  neat ;  and  then  he  went  into 
the  kitchen. 

His  mother  was  at  work  there,  and  several 
of  the  doors  were  open. 

11  Ah,"  said  Cymon,  « I'll  shut  all  the  doors.'; 

So  he  went  about,  and  shut  the  doors  care 
fully. 

His  mother  looked  up,  and  said, 

"  Thank  you,  Cymon." 

Cymon  did  not  answer,  but  he   began  tc 
feel  better,  already. 
9* 


102  ROLLO's    CORRESPONDENCE. 

Cymon  found  his  ball  lying  in  the  entry. 

"Ah,"  said  ho,  "  I'll  take  care  of  my  ball. 

"  And  of  my  books  too,"  he  continued  ;  for 
(ho  moment  that  he  took  up  his  ball,  his  eye 
fell  upon  two  picture-books,  which  were  lying 
upon  a  chair.  He  took  up  the  picture-books, 
and  carried  them  away  towards  the  shelves  in 
the  back  chamber,  where  they  belonged.  As 
he  was  carrying  them  along,  he  saw  his  little 
brother  sitting  down  upon  the  floor,  and  trying 
to  mend  his  whip.  The  lash  had  come  off, 
and  he  was  trying  to  tie  it  on. 

"  Ah,"  said  he,  "here  is  another  chance  to 
do  some  good.  I  will  help  my  little  brother 
mend  his  whip." 

So  he  sat  down  by  the  side  of  him,  and  be 
gan  to  bind  on  the  whip-lash  with  a  small  cord 
which  he  drew  from  his  pocket.  Little  Alfred 
—  for  that  was  his  brother's  name  —  looked 
on,  with  an  expression  of  great  interest  and 
pleasure  in  his  countenance.  When  it  was 
done.  Alfred  did  not  thank  him  for  it ;  but  he 
looked  so  delighted,  when  he  found  that  it 
was  fastened  very  securely,  and  would  snap, 
that  Cymon  was  more  than  paid  for  his  labor. 

Cymon  then  carried  his  ball  and  booKs  up 
to  the  shelves.  Just  before  he  got  there,  ha 


MCRE    LETTERS. 


103 


thought  that  Alfred  had  no  particular  means 
of  amusement,  and  that  he  would  be  aiding 
his  mother,  if  he  were  to  take  care  of  him. 
"  Yes,"  said  he  to  himself,  "  that  will  be  a 
way  to  do  good." 

So  lie  went,  and  asked  Alfred  if  he  should 
like  to  help  him  put  the  playthings  in  order. 
Alfred  said,  yes ;  and  then  they  both  went 
ail  about  the  house,  and  gathered  together  all 
the  picture-books  and  playthings  they  could 
find,  and  carried  them  up  to  the  shelves  where 
they  belonged.  They  were  careful  to  go  and 
come  very  still,  and  to  shut  all  the  doors  af 
ter  them,  so  as  not  to  disturb  any  body. 

Then  Cymon  went  to  work,  to  put  them 
in  order  upon  the  shelves.  He  wanted  Al 
fred  to  help  him  ;  but  Alfred  preferred  to  sit 
upon  the  floor,  and  look  at  the  playthings, 
which  were  collected  there,  before  they  were 
put  up.  Cymon  let  him  do  as  he  pleased. 
He  knew  that  the  little  fellow  was  not  old 
enough,  yet,  to  understand  the  beauty  of 
system  and  order,  and  so  he  did  the  work 
himself. 

Just  as  he  got  them  all  neatly  arranged,  his 
father  came  up  into  the  chamber  to  see  what 
he  was  doing.  Cymon  took  a  great  deal  of 


104  ROLLO'S    CORRESPONDENCE. 

pleasuie  in  showing  his  father  how  neatly  he 
had  arranged  every  thing  —  the  books  all  on 
a  shelf,  the  various  sizes  separated  —  the 
carts,  and  tops,  anl  balls,  and  blocks,  and 
farm-houses,  on  other  shelves,  neatly  ar 
ranged  ;  and  all  those  which  were  broken 
were  put  by  themselves  on  the  lowest  shelf, 
the  parts  carefully  brought  together,  so  that 
they  conld  easily  be  mended. 

"  Very  well,"  said  his  father,  "I  am  glad 
to  see  that.  And  now,  this  evening,  we  will 
carry  the  broken  playthings  down  stairs,  and 
I  will  get  out  the  glue-pot,  and  some  little 
nails,  and  we  will  mend  them  all  up  nicely." 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  Cymon,  "  I  should  like 
that  very  much." 

"  You  see,"  said  his  father,  "if  you  are 
going  to  keep  your  playthings  in  such  good 
order  as  this,  I  must  certainly  mend  up  the 
broken  ones  for  you.  And  now  come  down 
to  supper." 

"  To  supper !  "  said  Cymon.  "  It  cannot 
be  supper-time." 

"  Yes,"  said  his  father,  "  the  tea  and  the 
hot  cakes  are  all  ready." 

"  Why,  father !  "  said  Cymon,  "  I  thought 
it  was  only  tin;  middle  of  the  afternoon." 


MORE    LETTERS.  105 

It  was  supper-time,  however,  truly.  The 
ong,  dull,  stupid  afternoon,  which  Cymon  had 
looked  forward  to  with  such  dismal  feelings, 

O     7 

had  glided  insensibly  and  rapidly  away,  arid 
supper  was  ready.  Cymon  went  down  stairs, 
saying  to  himself,  "I  have  made  a  discovery. 
Doing  good  is  a  grand  way  to  dispel  melan 
choly,  and  make  the  time  pass  swiftly  and 
pleasantly  along." 


106 


AN    EXPEDITION. 

ONE  afternoon,  in  the  month  of  August, 
Rollo  was  in  the  garden,  getting  an  ear  of 
corn  to  roast  ;  and  Jonas,  who  was  passing 
along  that  way,  came  up  to  see  what  he  was 
doing. 

"  I  am  getting  me  an  ear  of  corn,"  said 
Rollo. 

11  These  are  fine  corn-stalks,"  said  Jonas, 
looking  at  the  tall  canes,  and  the  long,  green 
leaves  hanging  from  them  on  every  side.  — 
"  By  the  way,  that  makes  me  think  of  our 
new  cow ;  we  are  going  to  have  a  new  cow.'' 

"  Are  we  ?  »  said  Rollo. 

"  Yes,"  replied  Jonas,  "  a  cow  and  a  calf/' 

"  Where  are  we  going  to  get  her  ?  "  said 
Rollo. 

"  At  your  grandfather's.  Your  father  told 
me,  yesterday,  that  your  grandfather  had 
bought  him  a  cow  and  calf,  and  that  he  was 
going  to  send  for  them." 

"  Who  is  he  going  to  send  ?  "  said  Rollo. 


AN    EXPEDITION.  107 

"  He  said  that  perhaps  he  should  send  me." 

"  You  !  "  said  Rollo,  with  surprise.  "  O, 
Jonas  !  You  could  not  go.  It  is  thirty  miles 
to  my  grandfather's.  You  could  not  go  thir 
ty  miles." 

"  Why  not  ?  "  said  Jonas. 

'-  Why,  you  could  not  walk  so  far,"  re 
plied  Rollo. 

"  Don't  you  think  I  could  walk  as  far  as  a 
calf?" 

"  How  big  is  the  calf?  "  said  Rollo. 

"  I  don't  know,"  replied  Jonas.  "  I  only 
know  there  is  a  cow  and  a  calf." 

"O,  I  am  very  glad,"  said  Rollo,  holding 
his  ear  of  corn  carelessly  in  his  hand,  and 
looking  very  eagerly  at  Jonas.  "  When  do 
you  think  they  will  come  ? " 

11 1  don't  know,"  replied  Jonas.  "  I  don't 
know  whether  your  father  will  send  me  or 
not  ;  and  if  he  does,  I  don't  know  how  soon 
I  shall  go.  I  suppose  it  would  take  about 
four  days  ;  two  to  go,  and  two  to  come." 

"  Could  a  calf  walk  fifteen  miles  in  a  day  ?  " 
said  Rollo. 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  Jonas ;  "  arid  I  cannot 
stop  any. longer,  now." 

Rollo  thought  a  good  deal  about  the  cow 


108  HOLLO'S  CORRESPONDENCE. 

and  calf.  He  wished  that  his  father  would 
let  Jonas  go  in  the  wagon,  and  carry  him  with 
him.  He  resolved  to  ask  his  father ;  and  he 
did,  accordingly,  propose  the  plan  to  him  that 
evening,  just  after  supper. 

His  father  entertained  the  project  much 
more  favorably  than  Hollo  had  expected  he 
would.  He  said  he  did  not  know  but  that  it 
would  be  a  very  good  plan.  Nathan,  who  was 
•playing  horses  with  a  chair,  dropped  the  reins, 
and  came  and  asked  if  he  might  not  go  too. 

"  O,  no,  Nathan,"  said  Rollo,  "  you  caivt 
go." 

-'  Why  can't  I  go  ?  "  said  Nathan  ;  "  and 
where  is  it  ?  " 

Here  Rollo  laughed  aloud,  and  said  Nathan 
wanted  to  go,  without  knowing  where  it  was 
that  he  was  going.  Nathan  looked  a  little 
disconcerted,  and  went  away  again  to  his 
play. 

"  1  think,  Rollo,  that  you  had  better,  on 
the  whole,  take  the  chaise  instead  of  the 
wagon." 

"  What,  grandfather's  chaise  ?  "  said  Rollo. 

Rollo  knew  that  his  father  had  been  buy 
ing  a  chaise  for  his  grandfather,  and  that  he 
was  trying  to  get  an  opportunity  to  send  it  to 


AN    EXPEDITION.  i(j9 

liim.  So  when  Mr.  Holiday  mentioned  the 
chaise,  he  supposed  that  it  was  his  grandfa 
ther's  chaise  that  he  meant. 

"But  then,  father."  said  Hollo,  "how  shall 
we  get  back  ?  " 

"  You  must  ride  and  tie"  said  his  father. 

"How  is  that  ?  "  said  Rollo. 

"  Why,  when  two  people  ride  and  tie,"  re 
plied  his  father,  "  one  rides  a  mile  or  two,  and 
then  ties  his  horse  by  the  road-side,  and  walks 
on.  Then  the  other,  who  is  walking  along 
behind,  comes  up  and  unfastens  the  horse, 
and  gets  on,  and  takes  his  turn  in  riding. 
Presently  he  overtakes  the  other  ;  and,  after 
talking  a  minute  or  two  together,  he  passes 
on,  until  he  is  a  mile  or  two  in  advance ;  and 
then  he  ties  the  horse  again  by  the  road 
side,  and  walks  on  himself,  leaving  the  horse 
for  the  one  who  is  behind.  Thus  they  ride 
and  walk  by  turns,  each  one  tying  the  horse 
by  the  road-side  until  the  other  comes  up." 

"  That  is  an  excellent  way,"  said  Rollo. 

"  I  think,  myself,  it  is  a  pretty  good  way," 
replied  his  father,  "  when  there  are  two 
riders,  and  only  one  horse." 

"  We  could  not  get  along  very  fast"  said 
Rollo. 

10 


110  HOLLO'S  CORRESPONDENCE. 

"  No,  not  very  fast,"  replied  his  fathei  , 
"  though  two  men  can  get  along  faster  in  that 
way,  than  either  of  them  could  walk  ;  hut 
not  so  fast  as  they  would  go,  if  they  were  to 
ride  all  the  time.  The  speed  of  travelling 
in  that  way  is  intermediate  between  that  of  a 
man  and  that  of  a  horse." 

Rollo  thought  of  it  a  few  minutes  in  si 
lence  ;  but  he  could  not  get  a  very  clear  idea 
of  the  reason,  why  the  speed  would  be  inter 
mediate  between  that  of  a  man  and  a  horse. 
While  he  was  considering  the  subject,  his 
father  said, 

a  In  your  case,  however,  you  could  not  go 
any  faster  than  a  man  would  walk,  for  the 
calf  could  not  go  any  faster.  You  would 
have  to  regulate  your  speed  by  his.  So, 
strictly  speaking,  you  would  not  ride  and 
tie  ;  for,  as  you  would  have  to  go  very  slow 
ly,  one  of  you  would  ride,  and  the  other 
would  walk  along  by  his  side,  so  as  to  keep 
together." 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  could  walk  until  I 
got  tired,  and  then  Jonas  could  let  me  get  on 
and  ride  ;  and  when  he  was  tired,  I  would 
let  him  ride  again.  I  wish  you  would  let  me 
go,  father,"  said  Rollo. 


AN    EXPEDITION.  Ill 

u  Perhaps  I  shall,"  replied  his  father. 

Hollo's  mother,  who  had  been  listening  to 
Ihe  conversation  thus  far  without  saying  any 
thing,  now  said  that  she  should  be  afraid  to 
have  him  go  so  far. 

"  Only  think,"  said  she  ;  "  he  would  have 
to  walk  fifteen  miles." 

"  Yes,"  replied  his  father,  "if  he  walked 
half  of  the  way." 

"  And  he  would  walk  half  of  the  way,  of 
course  ;  would  not  he,  on  this  plan  ?  " 

"  Why,  I  suppose  Jonas  would  let  him  ride 
more  than  half.  They  could  arrange  that  in 
any  way  ;  and  I  don't  think  Jonas  would  let 
mm  get  tired." 

"  How  long  would  it  take  them?  "  said 
his  mother. 

"  They  would  go,  in  the  chaise,  in  one 
day  ;  and  then  they  would  probably  be  two 
days  in  coming  back.  I  am  not  certain  but 
that  it  would  be  quite  a  useful  expedition  for 
Rollo." 

"  It  would,  father,  I  know,"  said  Rollo. 
"I  should  learn  to  ride,  and  to  drive  a  cow 
You  see,  mother,"  he  continued,  turning  tc 
his  mother  to  explain  it  to  her,  "  while  he  is 
riding,  I  should  have  to  drive  the  cow.  I'll 


112 


1  av3  a  whip  —  here,  Nathan,  let  me  have 
your  whip,  and  I'll  show  you  how  I'd  crack 
it  at  her,  if  she  offered  to  go  out  of  the  road." 

Hollo  went  to  Nathan,  and  got  his  whip  ; 
and  in  a  minute  or  two  he  proposed  that  Na 
than  should  be  the  cow,  and  he  would  drive 
him.  Finally,  he  became  so  much  interest 
ed  in  playing  drive  cow,  that  he  forgot  all 
about  the  real  expedition.  He  drove  Nathan 
into  the  entry,  and  thence  out  into  the  yard ; 
and  there  they  got  to  playing  something  else, 
until,  after  about  half  an  hour,  his  mother 
came  to  tell  them  it  was  time  to  come  in. 
A  short  time  after  this  he  went  to  bed  ;  and 
when  his  mother  came  to  get  the  light, 
she  told  him  that  she  believed  his  father  had 
concluded  to  let  him  go. 

This  was  Saturday  night. 

The  next  Monday  morning,  Rollo  asked 
his  father  if  he  had  really  concluded  to  let  him 
go  with  Jonas  ;  and  his  father  said  yes. 

"  When  are  we  going  ? "  said  Rollo. 

"  To-morrow  morning,"  said  his  father. 

''•  Well,"  said  Rollo,  in  a  tone  of  great  sat 
isfaction  ;  "  and  1  will  go  and  pack  my  trunk." 

"  Your  trunk  ?  "  said  his  mother.  "  You 
cannot  carry  any  trunk." 


AN    EXPEDITION.  1  13 

"Won't  there  be  room,"  said  Rollo;  "  in 
the  chaise  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  she,  u  you  might  carry  it,  it 
is  true  ;  but  how  could  you  get  it  back  ?  " 

"  O,  yes,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  forgot.  We  ciivt 
bring  the  trunk  home  on  horseback.  Now, 
how  shall  I  carry  my  clothes  ?  "  said  Rollo,  in 
a  tone  of  great  perplexity. 

"  You  will  have  to  carry  them  on  your 
back,  for  aught  I  see,"  said  his  mother. 
"  That  is  the  way  horseback  travellers  have 
to  do." 

"  We  will  give  thvm  a  little  valise,"  said 
his  father,  "  or  else  z-  Dair  of  saddle-bags, 
which  will  hold  a  litt\*.  You  must  be  all 
ready  to  start  early  in  th-  morning  ;  and  this 
evening,  you  and  Jonas  ma/  come  in  here  to 
gether,  and  I  will  give  you  your  instruc 
tions." 

"  Well,  sir,"  said  R^llo,  "we  will." 

That  evening  Rollo  and  Jonas  came  in, 
according  to  Mr.  Holiday's  request,  to  re 
ceive  his  instructions.  Rolla  sat  down  upon 
the  sofa.  Jonas  stood  still  near  the  door,  with 
his  cap  in  his  hand,  until  Mr.  Holliday  asked 
him  to  sit  down  ;  and  then  he  sat  down  in  a 
e*  10* 


1 14  HOLLO'S  CORRESPONDENCE. 

chair  standing  near.  Mr.  Holiday  then  gave 
his  instructions  as  follows  :  — 

"  I  wart  you,  Jonas,  to  get  the  chaise  all 
ready  to-. light,  and  strap  the  saddle  on  be 
hind  firm.y.  The  saddle-bags  we  will  put 
in,  in  the  morning.  You  will  go  in  one  day, 
of  course ;  and  I  want  to  have  you  stop  to 
get  dinner  at  the  ferry  tavern  —  you  know 
where  that  is." 

"  Yes,  sir,"  replied  Jonas. 

"  That  is  about  half  way  j  and  it  will  be 
best  for  you  to  stop  there  at  night,  coming 
back.  I  presume  you  will  be  able  to  come 
home  in  two  days  ;  but  if  you,  or  Hollo,  or 
the  calf,  get  tired,  you  can  take  three  days 
for  it ;  and  in  that  case,  you  must  stop  at 
such  places  as  you  judge  best. 

"  You  will  stay  one  day  at  grandfather's," 
continued  Mr.  Holiday,  "and  perhaps  two. 
I  shall  leave  you  to  judge  about  that,  after 
you  get  there  ;  and  I  want  you  and  Rollo,  both, 
to  write  me  letters  while  you  are  gone,  if 
you  have  any  leisure  time,  and  give  me  an 
account  of  all  your  adventures.  The  more 
minutely  and  fully  you  write,  the  better." 

"  How  shall  we  get  any  paper  ? "  said 
Rollo. 


AN    EXPEDITION.  115 

"  I  must  put  you  up  some  pens  and  paper," 
said  his  father,  "  and  you  can  take  them  out 
when  you  stop.  You  will  find  it  quite  diffi 
cult  to  write  on  a  journey.  Very  few  persons 
have  energy  and  efficiency  enough  for  that." 

"  Why,  father  !  "  said  Rollo.  "  We  shall 
have  a  very  good  chance  to  write  at  night, 
when  we  stop  at  the  tavern." 

11  Very  well,"  said  his  father,  "  we  shall 
see. 

"  And,  Jonas,"  he  continued,  "  I  shall  give 
you  some  money  in  the  morning,  more  than 
you  will  probably  want ;  so  that,  in  case  any 
difficulty  or  delay  should  occur,  you  will  be 
fully  supplied." 

"Yes,  sir,"  said  Jonas.  "  I  will  take  good 
care  of  it." 

"  Very  well.  I  believe  that  is  all  I  have 
to  say  now.  You  must  remember  these  in 
structions,  for  I  shall  not  repeat  them  in  the 
morning." 

So  Jonas  went  away,  and  Rollo  went  to 
see  his  father  put  up  a  roll  of  paper,  and 
some  pens,  and  an  inkstand. 

The  next  morning  Jonas  had  the  chaise  at 
the  door  just  before  the  breakfast-bell  rang, 


110  HOLLO'S   CORRESPONDENCE. 

so  that  immediately  after  breakfast  they  migh . 
be  ready  to  set  out.  Rollo  came  in,  very 
neatly  but  plainly  dressed,  and  his  father 
brought  the  saddle-bags,  with  every  thing  in 
them  which  they  would  need.  After  break 
fast,  he  gave  Jonas  a  good  supply  of  money, 
and  then  the  two  boys  got  into  the  chaise  and 
rode  away. 

Hollo's  father  and  mother  saw  no  more  of 
him  till  the  end  of  the  week.  What  befell 
him  and  Jonas  during  that  time,  is  described 
in  the  letters  which  the  boys  wrote  and  sent 
to  Mr.  Holiday.  These  letters  are  contained 
in  the  next  chapter. 


117 


THE    TRAVELLERS. 


LETTER  I.  —  Rollo  to  his  Father. 

Ferry  Tavern,  Tuesday,  12  o'clock. 

My  dear  Father, 

We  have  got  so  far,  safely  ;  and  we 
have  had  a  very  good  time.  I  told  Jonas 
that  I  wanted  to  begin  my  letter  here  ;  but 
he  says  that  he  is  not  going  to  begin  until 
wo  get  to  grandfather's.  He  is  out,  taking 
care  of  the  horse.  We  are  going  to  stay  here 
two  hours  ]  and  after  Jonas  has  taken  care  of 
the  horse,  we  are  going  to  take  a  walk  down 
by  the  river.  I  believe  I  will  not  write  any 
more  now,  but  will  go  out  into  the  barn  and 
see  how  Jonas  gets  along. 

At  Grandfather's,  Wednesday  Morning. 

I  wrote  so  much  at  the  tavern,  and  then  I 
went  out  into  the  barn  to  see  what  Jonas  was 
doing.  I  found  that  he  was  helping  a  black 
man  who  was  there.  The  black  man  was 
currying  and  feeding  the  stage-horses,  and  so 
Jonas  thought  he  would  help  him. 


118  HOLLO'S  CORRESPONDENCE. 

While  lie  was  there,  he  told  Jonas  a  story 
about  his  going  across  the  ferry  one  night. 
It  was  before  they  had  any  ferry-boat,  and  so 
they  had  to  wade  the  horses  across.  He 
was  in  the  middle  of  the  story  when  I  went 
there,  and  I  will  write  it  down  just  as  he  told 
it,  as  near  as  I  remember. 

"  The  squire  came  out  to  me,  and  says  he, 
'  Sam,' — they  call  me  Sam,  generally,  though 
my  name  is  properly  Solomon,  —  but  some 
how  they  always  shorten  it  into  Sam.  l  Sam,' 
said  the  squire,  '  do  you  think  you  can  get 
acros^s  the  river  to-riight  ? ' 

"  '  It  is  pretty  dark,  squire,'  said  I. 

"  i  I  know  it  is,'  says  the  squire.  '  I  never 
saw  a  darker  night ;  but  the  baby  is  very 
sick,  and  there  is  no  doctor  on  this  side  with 
in  fifteen  miles.' 

"  '  If  I  should  get  across,'  said  I,  <  I  don't 
believe  the  doctor  would  come  over.' 

"  '  No,'  says  he,  '  I  don't  think  he  would. 
[What  follows  was  in  Jonas's  hand- writing.] 
But  then  you  know  you  might  tell  him  about 
it;  and  get  him  to  give  you  some  medicine.' 

"c  Well,'  says  I,  'squire,  I'll  try;  and  I'll 
do  my  best  to  get  across,  and  that  is  all  I 
can  do.' 


THE    TRAVELLERS.  119 

"  *  1  know  you  will,  Sam,'  says  the  squire, 
1  and  I'd  rather  pay  fifty  dollars  than  to  let 
you  go  ;  but  I  am  afraid  the  poor  little  thing 
will  die  before  morning,  if  we  don't  somehow 
get  word  to  the  doctor.' 

"  So  I  went  and  took  out  Turco."  And  then 
Sam  showed  us  Turco,  which  was  a  horse, 
standing  in  his  stall.  "  There  is  Turco,"  he 
said,  "  and  he  is  equal  to  a  spaniel  in  the  wa 
ter.  '  Turco  will  carry  me  across,  if  its  a 
possibility,'  said  I. 

"  So  I  bridled  Turco,  and  led  him  out. 
The  squire  stood  by,  telling  me  how  sorry 
he  was  to  have  me  go.  I  said  nothing,  ex 
cepting  now  and  then  a  good  word  to  Turco. 

"  The  river,  you  know,  is  not  very  deep  in 
the  ford  ing-place ;  but  it  is  deep  enough 
above  and  below ;  and  the  trouble  I  knew 
would  be  to  keep  the  course.  I  led  Turco 
down  to  the  bank,  the  squire  following  me. 

"  '  Squire,'  says  I,  '  there's  a  light.' 

"  '  So  there  is,'  says  he. 

"  I  watched  the  light  a  minute,  and  then  I 
told  him  it  was  a  light  in  the  old  red  house 
on  t'other  side  of  the  river. 

"  '  That  will  guide  you,'  says  the  squire. 


120  HOLLO'S  CORRESPONDENCE. 

"  '  Yes,'  says  I,  '  squire,  that  will  guide  me 
over,  if  I  can  keep  sight  of  it  j  but  what  is 
going  to  guide  me  back  ? ' 

"  '  O,  we'll  have  a  light  here,'  said  he. 
'We'll  put  all  the  lamps  in  the  house  on  a 
table  by  the  kitchen  window.  That  looks 
right  out  upon  the  river.' 

"  '  Very  well,  squire,'  says  I.  '  Turco  and 
I  will  do  our  best.' 

"  With  that  I  sprang  over  upon  Turco's 
back,  and  turned  his  head  down  towards  the 
water.  He  did  not  like  to  go  in.  There  was 
a  little  glimmer  of  light  upon  the  water,  from 
the  squire's  lantern ;  but  all  beyond  was  as 
black  as  midnight. 

"  l  Come,  Turco,'  says  I,  i  we  must  go  ;  no 
flinching.' 

"  So  Turco  stepped  forward,  slowly,  look 
ing  down  to  the  water  at  every  step,  while 
I  watched  the  light."  [What  follows  was  in 
Hollo's  hand-writing.] 

I  believe  I  shall  not  write  the  rest  of  the 
story  now,  father ;  I  did  not  think  it  was  so 
long.  I  began  and  wrote  on  a  little  way,  and 
then  I  got  Jonas  to  help  me  along  with  it, 
But  he  says,  now,  he  cannot  write  any  more, 


THE    TRAVELLERS.  121 

for  it  is  time  for  him  to  begin  his  own  letters  ; 
and  this  is  too  long  for  a  letter,  now. 
I  am,  very  affectionately,  yours, 

ROLLO. 

P.  S.  I  will  tell  you  the  rest  of  the 
story,  when  I  come  home.  Turco  got  over, 
at  last. 


LETTER  II.  —  Jonas  to  Rollo's  Father. 

"  Wednesday  Evening,  9  o'clock. 

•'  Respected  Sir, 

"  After  we  left  home,  yesterday  morn 
ing,  we  went  along  very  well  for  about  ten 
miles  ;  and  then  I  thought  I  heard  a  rattling 
sound  under  the  chaise.  I  looked  under,  and 
I  found  that  the  nut  of  one  of  the  screws 
was  working  loose,  which  allowed  the  iron  to 
play  a  little.  I  stopped  at  one  or  two  farm 
houses,  to  see  if  I  could  borrow  a  nut-wrench, 
or  a  pair  of  pincers  ;  but  I  could  not.  One 
man  had  a  pair  of  pincers,  but  they  were  too 
small.  They  would  not  open  wide  enough 
to  take  in  the  nut.  I  screwed  it  up  as  well 
as  I  could  with  my  fingers,  and  went  on.  It 
worked  loose,  however,  more  and  more  :  and, 
/  11 


/22  HOLLO'S  CORRESPONDENCE. 

presently,  I  stopped  again  at  a  farm-house. 
Here  I  found  a  pair  of  pincers  almost  large 
enough,  and  so  I  took  off  the  nut,  and  ground 
it  a  little  on  one  edge  upon  a  grindstone  ;  and 
then  I  could  get  hold  of  it  with  the  pincers, 
and  screw  it  up  pretty  firm.  It  kept  on,  then, 
till  I  got  to  the  ferry  tavern,  where  I  got  a 
wrench,  and  screwed  it  up  hard. 

"  This  made  us  rather  late  in  getting  to 
the  tavern,  and  we  stopped  two  hours  there. 
Hollo  and  I  went  to  see  a  mill,  pretty  near 
there.  They  were  making  a  new  dam.  The 
old  one  was  carried  away  by  the  last  freshet. 
They  are  putting  the  new  dam  a  little  higher 
up.  They  are  making  it  of  plank,  which 
they  pin  down  firmly  to  great  beams  of  wood, 
which  are  fastened  to  the  rocks  by  great  bolts 
of  iron.  I  don't  see  how  this  dam  can  pos 
sibly  be  carried  away. 

"  We  got  here  safely,  about  five  o'clock. 
They  were  very  glad  to  see  us.  The  cow 
and  calf  are  here,  all  ready  to  go,  and  we  ex 
pect  to  set  out  day  after  to-morrow.  I  have 
been  at  work  most  of  the  day  about  the  farm, 
and  to-morrow  we  are  going  to  lay  down  an 
aqueduct,  to  bring  water  into  the  barn-yard, 


THE    TRAVELLERS.  123 

The  trench  is  all  dug,  and  the  logs  are  ready 
bored.  They  say  that  I  can  help  them  a 
great  deal. 

"  I  am,  with  great  respect, 

"  Your  obedient  servant, 

"  JONAS. 

"  P.  S.  There  is  a  man  here  going  back 
the  way  we  came,  to-morrow  morning,  and 
he  is  going  to  carry  our  letters. " 


LETTER  III.  —  Jonas  to  Hollo's  Father. 

"  Ferry  Tavern,  Friday  Afternoon. 

4'  Respected  Sir, 

"  We  arrived  here  this  afternoon,  in 
pretty  good  season,  and  hoped  to  get  along 
a  little  farther  to-night  ;  but  we  are  stopped 
by  the  rain.  We  remained  two  days  at 
grandfather's,  for  they  wanted  my  help  about 
putting  down  the  aqueduct  ;  and  you  direct 
ed  me  to  act  as  might  seem  best  when  I  got 
here,  about  staying  two  days.  Hollo  helped 
us  a  good  deal  about  our  work,  by  getting 
tools,  going  of  errands,  and  bringing  water 
for  us  to  drink. 

"  We  got  the  aqueduct  down  before 


124  ROLLO'S    CORRESPONDENCE. 

and  then  set  the  water  to  running.  It  came 
very  fast,  and  it  very  soon  filled  up  the  trough 
which  was  made  for  it.  I  drove  our  cow  and 
calf  out  to  drink  at  it,  as  soon  as  it  was  ready  ; 
and  the  cow  liked  the  water  very  much. 
The  calf  would  not  drink.  He  is  not  old 
enough  yet.  This  was  yesterday. 

"  This  morning,  we  set  out  very  early. 
The  cow  and  calf  would  not  go  very  well  at 
first.  They  kept  turning  out  one  side  and 
the  other.  Jeremiah  came  with  us,  a  mile  or 
two,  to  get  us  fairly  started.  Rollo  rode,  and 
I  walked,  at  first.  After  a  while,  the  cow 
began  to  travel  more  steadily  ;  and  then  Jere 
miah  bade  us  good-by,  and  went  back.  Pres 
ently  Rollo  wanted  to  walk,  and  so  I  rode 
a  little  while  ;  but  while  I  was  on  the  horse, 
some  children  came  running  out  of  a  school- 
house,  by  the  side  of  the  road,  and  frightened 
the  calf.  He  jumped  over  a  low  place  in  the 
wall,  and  ran  off  into  a  field,  towards  the 
woods.  The  cow  ran  after  him,  and  I  was 
very  much  afraid  that  they  would  get  into 
the  woods,  and  be  lost. 

"  So  I  told  the  children  to  stay  there,  in 
the  road,  and  keep  the  cow  from  running 
back  the  way  we  came,  when  I  should  drive 


THE    TRAVELLERS.  125 

her  out  of  the  field  ;  and  then  1  got  off  the 
horse,  and  tied  him  to  the  fence,  and  Hollo 
and  I  went  into  the  field  after  the  cow.  She 
had  gone  down  a  hill,  and  there  she  had 
stopped,  and  was  browsing  upon  the  bushes. 
Hollo  and  I  went  carefully  round  beyond,  and 
drove  her  arid  the  calf  back  to  the  road  again, 
without  much  difficulty. 

"  I  have  reached  the  end  of  my  paper  now, 
but  I  shall  begin  another  letter  this  evening." 
"  Yours,  very  respectfully, 

" JONAS/' 


LETTER  IV.  —  Rollo  to  his  Mother. 

"  Ferry  Tavern,  Friday  Evening. 

"  My  dear  Mother, 

"  Here  we  are,  caught  in  the  rain.  It 
began  to  rain  this  afternoon  about  four  o'clock, 
just  before  we  got  here.  We  had  a  very 
pleasant  time  travelling,  all  day;  only  Jonas 
would  not  let  me  walk  much.  I  think  that  he 
must  be  pretty  tired,  for  he  walked  as  much 
as  two  thirds  of  the  way. 

"  We  had  a  beautiful   luncheon-time  this 
forenoon.     You  must  know  that  grandmother 
11* 


126 


put  some  cakes  and  some  cheese  into  one  side 
of  our  saddle-bags,  and  a  little  dipper  for  us 
to  drink  out  of  on  the  way.  There  was  also 
a  little  glass  bottle,  very  strong,  full  of  mo 
lasses,  for  us  to  make  some  sweetened  water 
with. 

"  We  came  to  a  place  where  a  stream  of 
water  passed  across  the  road,  and  here  the 
cow  went  down  to  drink.  The  calf  was 
pretty  tired,  and  so  he  lay  down  to  rest  a 
minute  or  two. 

"  About  an  hour  after  this,  we  came  to  an 
other  brook  ;  and  Jonas  said  that  we  might  as 
well  stop  and  eat  our  luncheon  then,  as  at 
any  time.  So  he  took  out  a  rope  from  the 
saddle-bags,  which  he  had  all  ready,  to  tie  the 
cow  up  with,  and  put  it  around  her  neck,  and 
tied  her  to  a  tree.  The  calf  lay  down  and 
went  to  sleep.  Jonas  and  I  sat  down  upon  a 
stone,  by  the  side  of  the  brook,  and  made 
our  sweetened  water,  and  ate  our  cakes  and 
cheese.  Then  we  came  along  very  pleasant 
ly  till  dinner-time.  We  travelled  after  din 
ner  about  two  hours,  and  then  it  began  to 
ram  ;  we  just  succeeded  in  getting  across 
the  fen  y  to  this  tavern,  and  now  we  are  here. 


WE  CAME   TO    ANOTHER  BROOK         Page  126. 


THE    TRAVELLERS. 


129 


Jonas  says  he  thinks  it  will  rain  to-morrow  ; 
and  if  it  does,  we  cannot  come  home  until 
Monday. 

"  Jonas  says  that,  if  it  should  rain,  so  as 
to  keep  us  here  to-morrow,  he  shall  watch  at 
the  window,  to  see  if  there  is  not  any  body 
going  along  who  can  take  oui  letters. 

"  This  one  is  from  your  butiful  and  afTec- 
ticnate  son, 

"HOLUQ.*9 


130 


THE    TURCO    STORY 

CONTRARY  to  Jonas's  expectations,  it  cleared 
np  in  the  night ;  and  when  he  awoke  on  Sat 
urday  morning,  the  bright  beams  of  the 
morning  sun  were  just  appearing  among  the 
trees  in  the  eastern  horizon. 

Jonas  arose  and  dressed  himself,  and  then 
went  to  the  room  where  Hollo  slept,  and 
called  him. 

They  got  up  ;  and  as  Jonas  recommended 
that  they  should  go  a  little  way  before  break 
fast,  Rollo  dressed  himself  as  soon  as  he  could, 
and  went  out  into  the  barn. 

He  found  Jonas  taking  care  of  the  cow  and 
calf;  and,  in  about  half  an  hour,  they  sat 
out  again  on  their  journey.  They  had  no 
time  to  write  any  more  letters,  for  they  did 
not  make  very  long  stops  any  where  during 
the  day,  but  pressed  iorward  towards  home. 
Thdy  arrived  about  the  middle  of  the  after 
noon,  with  the  two  last  letters  they  had  writ 
ten  safe  in  their  pockets. 


THE    TURCO    STORY  131 

Rollo's  mother  was  very  much  interested 
lo  hear  the  rest  of  the  story  about  Turco, 
and  she  asked  Rollo  to  tell  it  to  her.  But 
Rollo  said  that  Jonas  could  tell  it  the  best, 
and  so  she  concluded  to  wait  until  after  tea, 
and  then  go  and  find  him. 

After  tea,  Rollo  wanted  her  and  Nathan  to 
go  out  and  see  the  calf.  So  his  mother  put 
on  her  bonnet,  and  went  with  him.  The 
calf  was  lying  down  upon  some  straw,  in  a 
pen,  in  the  barn.  Nathan  got  a  stick,  and 
was  going  to  punch  it  in  through  the  cracks, 
and  make  the  calf  get  up.  But  Rollo  told 
him  he  had  better  not  do  so,  for  the  calf  was 
very  tired. 

While  they  were  looking  at  him,  Jonas 
came  along,  and  Rollo's  mother  asked  him 
if  he  was  tired,  after  his  day's  travelling. 
He  said  that  he  was  not  very  tired,  for  he 
rode  a  good  deal. 

"  Well,  Jonas,"  said  Rollo's  mother,  "  the 
story  you  began  to  tell  us,  about  Sam  and 
Turco,  was  very  interesting.  I  am  sorry  you 
did  not  have  time  to  finish  it." 

"  Why,  that  was  Rollo's  plan,"  said  Jonas. 
"I  only  wrote  in  it  a  little,  to  help  him." 

"  Well,  he  did  not  finish  it.     Suppose  you 


132  HOLLO'S    CORRESPONDENCE. 

tell  me  the  rest  of  it.     I  want  to  know  how 
it  turned  out." 

"  Why,  Sam  went  on  to  say,"  replied  Jo 
nas,  "  that  he  drove  the  horse  on  into  the  wa 
ter,  while  he  himself  kept  his  eye  steadily 
fixed  upon  the  light." 

"  Was  the  water  very  deep  ?  "  asked  Mrs. 
Holiday. 

"  Not  very  deep,  at  first,"  said  Jonas  j 
"  only  it  grew  deeper  and  deeper,  as  he  went 
in  farther  and  farther ;  and  then  the  light  was 
not  in  the  right  direction,  to  lead  him  across 
in  the  shoalest  place.  It  carried  him  too  far 
down  the  stream  —  a  little;  but  then  he 
thought  it  would  be  so  excellent  a  guide, 
that  it  would  be  better  to  follow  it." 

"  And  so  he  got  safe  across  ?  "  said  Hollo's 
mother. 

"  O,  no,"  said  Hollo. 

"No,"  said  Jonas  ;  "he  went  on  for  some 
time — it  was  totally  dark,  excepting  this 
single  star  of  light  right  before  him  — when, 
all  at  once,  when  he  had  got  about  into  the 
middle  of  the  river,  the  light  went  out  in  an 
instant,  and  then  he  found  himself  in  total 
darkness.  He  said  he  looked  all  around, 
above,  and  below,  and  on  every  side,  and  he 


THE    TURCO    STORY.  133 

could  not  see  the  least  sign  of  any  thing  vis- 
ibit;.  He  could  not  see  either  shore,  nor  the 
sky,  nor  even  the  water  under  him  ;  and 
there  he  was,  in  the  midst  of  a  rapid  and 
dangerous  river,  with  only  one  narrow  place 
which  was  shallow  enough  to  ford  ;  and  he 
was  then  almost  off  of  that." 

"  And  what  did  he  do  ?  "  said  Mrs.  Holiday. 

11  Why,  he  said  he  stopped  a  few  minutes, 
and  then  went  on  as  well  as  he  could  ;  try 
ing  to  keep  as  near  as  possible  in  a  straight 
line  with  his  former  course.  But  the  water 
soon  grew  suddenly  deeper.  He  turned  the 
horse  as  quick  as  he  possibly  could  :  but,  in 
stead  of  getting  out,  he  only  got  deeper. 
The  horse  plunged  in  beyond  his  depth,  and 
in  an  instant  he  was  swimming,  with  Sam 
upon  his  back." 

"  And  what  became  of  him,  then  ?  "  asked 
Mrs.  Holiday. 

"  Why,  he  said  he  had  got  then  so  com 
pletely  turned  round,  and  it  was  so  totally 
dark,  that  there  was  nothing  to  be  done,  but 
to  drift  down  the  stream,  and  trust  to  chance. 
In  a  few  minutes,  however,  he  felt  something 
heavy  and  hard  strike  upon  his  knee,  in  the 
water.  He  put  out  his  hand  to  feel  of  it, 
12 


131  ROLLO'S    CORRESPONDENCE. 

and  found  that  it  was  a  large  log,  which  was 
floating  upon  the  water.  He  said  he  con 
trived  to  get  his  horse's  nose  over  one  end  of 
it,  and  then  he  got  upon  the  middle  of  it 
himself,  astride ;  and  so  he  thought  that  he 
could  keep  both  himself  and  his  horse  afloat 
the  longer." 

':  Why,  this  is  a  very  extraordinary  story," 
said  Mrs.  Holiday,  in  a  tone  of  surprise,  as  if 
she  hardly  knew  what  to  make  of  it. 

"  Yes,  ma'am,"  said  Jonas,  "  I  thought  it 
was,  myself." 

"  Well,  go  on,  and  tell  us  the  rest  of  it. 
How  did  it  end  ?  " 

"  Why,  he  drifted  about  a  short  time,  and 
at  length,  suddenly,  the  log  pulled  itself  out 
from  under  the  horse's  nose  ;  and,  at  the  same 
instant,  he  observed  that  his  horse  was  strug 
gling.  He  knew  at  once  that  he  had  got 
bottom  again,  and  was  trying  to  keep  his 
footing  upon  it,  while  the  log  was  pulling 
down  stream  by  the  force  of  the  current 
Sam  said  that  he  knew  he  mast  immediately 
abandon  the  log ;  and  so  he  jumped  off  upon 
one  side  into  the  river,  and  found  he  had  got 
bottom  in  about  four  feet  of  water.  The 
current  was  not  very  swift,  and  so  he  and  the 


THE    TURCO    STORY. 


135 


horse  could  just  make  out  to  sta-nd.  And 
now  he  knew  which  way  to  go." 

"  How  did  he  know  that  ?  "  asked  Mrs. 
Holiday. 

"  Why,  by  the  direction  of  the  current  ; 
for,  as  he  wanted  to  go  across  the  river  to  one 
bank  or  the  other,  he  did  not  much  ;-are 
which,  he  went  neither  against  the  current 
nor  with  it,  but  right  across  it ;  and  so  he 
knew  he  must  be  going  towards  one  shore 
or  the  other.  He  waded  along  in  this  way 
for  some  time.  When  he  found  the  water 
growing  deeper,  he  turned  a  little  one  way  or 
the  other  ;  and  so,  gradually,  he  got  to  where 
it  was  only  two  or  three  feet  deep,  and  then 
he  could  get  along  very  comfortably. 

"Very  soon  after  this,  he  said  that,  sud 
denly,  to  his  great  joy,  he  caught  a  glimpse 
of  the  light  again.  He  followed  the  direc 
tion  of  it  closely,  never  allowing  himself  to 
lose  sight  of  it,  and  keeping  the  horse  mov 
ing  steadily  on.  The  light  grew  brighter 
and  brighter,  and,  presently,  another  fainter 
one  came  into  view.  He  wondered  what 
this  second  light  could  be,  for  he  did  not 
know  of  but  one  house  in  view  upon  the 
other  side  of  the  river.  However,  the  water 


HOLLOS  CORRESPONDENCE. 

was  now  shoaling  very  rapidly,  and  so  Sam 
said  he  knew  that  he  was  drawing  pretty 
near  to  the  shore  ;  and  just  then  he  heard  a 
voice  calling  out  to  him, '  Sam,  is  that  you  ? ' 
Old  Tiirco  walked  along  out  upon  the  shure, 
and  there,  to  his  astonishment,  he  found  the 
squire  with  a  lantern.  He  had  got  back  to 
the  same  side  of  the  river  that  he  set  out 
from." 

"  Why ! "  said  Hollo's  mother,  with  an 
expression  of  surprise,  and  with  an  incredu 
lous  smile,  "  that  is  a  very  extraordinary 
story." 

Jonas  made  no  reply. 

"  It  is  a  very  extraordinary  story  indeed," 
she  continued.  "  What  did  you  think  of  it, 
Jonas  ?  " 

"  I  did  not  believe  it,  ma'am,"  said  Jonas, 
quietly. 

«  Why  not  ?  "  said  she. 

"  Why,  there  were  several  things  that  made 
me  suspicious.  First,  he  said  that  it  was 
so  dark  that  he  could  not  see  the  sky  j 
whereas,  I  believe  that  it  is  never  so  danc 
that  we  cannot  see  the  sky." 

"  True,"  said  Hollo's  mother ;  "  I  did  not 
think  of  that " 


THE    TUKCO    STORY.  137 

*•  And  then,"  continued  Jonas,  "  as  he> 
which  way  the  river  flowed,  he  must 
have  known  that  lie  was  coming  back  again, 
when  he  saw  the  light  the  second  time, 
by  the  direction  of  the  current  sweeping 
by  him ;  but  he  said  he  thought  he  was 
going  on  across,  until  he  heard  the  squire's 
voice." 

"  He  might  have  got  confused,"  said 
Hollo. 

"  Yes,"  replied  his  mother,  "  he  might 
have  got  turned  about  arid  completely  con 
fused." 

"Besides,"  continued  Jonas,  "I  asked 
a  man  at  the  mill  what  sort  of  a  fellow 
the  black  man  was  who  lived  at  the  tav 
ern  ? " 

"  And  what  did  he  say  ?  "  said  Hollo's 
mother. 

u  He  said,"  replied  Jonas,  "  that  he  be- 
ieved  he  was  a  pretty  clever  sort  of  a 
fellow,  only  he  was  apt  to  tell  rather  large 
stories." 

Here  Hollo's  mother  laughed  heartily  at 
the  idea  that  the  whole  story  was,  after  all, 
a  fiction,  and  at  Jonas's  wariness  in  regard 

/*  12* 


133  ROLLO'S    CORRESPONDENCE. 

to  believing  it ;  and  she  walked  along  with 
Hollo  and  Nathan  out  of  the  barn,  while 
Jonas  went  to  work  to  tying  up  the  new 
cow 


139 


HYDRAULICS. 


SOME  mr*ths  after  this,  Roilo  went  to 
spend  several  weeks  at  his  grandfather's  farm, 
on  a  visit.  Before  he  went  away,  his  father 
asked  him  to  write  home  very  often,  and 
to  give  him,  in  his  letters,  very  full  accounts 
of  whatever  happened  that  was  particularly 
interesting  to  him. 

"  And  especially,"  said  his  father,  "  if,  in 
any  case,  you  are  placed  in  circumstances 
where  you  do  not  know  what  to  do,  I  wish 
you  would  write  to  me  and  state  the  case, 
and  I  will  give  you  my  opinion." 

Rollo  promised  that  he  would  ;  arid  the 
following  are  some  of  the  letters  which 
passed  between  him  and  his  father :  — 

LETTER  I.  —  Rollo  to  his  Father. 

"  Grandfather's  Farm,  Nov.  20. 

"  Dear  Father, 

"I   meant   to     have    written    to   you 
long  before  this  time,  but  I  have  been  very 


140  HOLLO'S   CORRESPONDENCE. 

busy  with  Charles.  Charles  is  a  boy  that 
lives  here,  in  the  next  house.  There  is  an 
old  mill  down  behind  our  houses,  or  rather 
a  place  where  there  was  a  mill  once,  but 
the  mill  is  almost  all  torn  down,  and  the 
gate  is  broken.  Charles  and  the  other  boys 
wanted  me  to  help  them  get  in  some  gravel, 
and  mend  up  the  place,  so  as  to  make  a 
pond.  The  reason  why  we  want  a  pond 
is,  to  have  it  freeze  over,  so  that  we  can 
skate  upon  it.  Charles  says,  that  if  they 
can  only  stop  up  the  old  gateway  and  raise 
the  water,  it  will  flow  over  a  large  place, 
and  make  a  pretty  good  skating  ground.  It 
is  a  beautiful  place,  for  there  are  trees  all 
around  the  stream  where  the  pond  will  be, 
and  some  high  rocks  on  one  side,  where 
there  is  a  kind  of  a  cave. 

"  At  first,  I  did  not  know  whether  grand 
father  would  be  willing  to  have  me  play 
there,  and  I  did  not  like  to  go  very  well , 
but  p-ctty  soon  I  asked  him^  and  he  went 
down  to  see.  He  said  he  did  not  think 
that  there  was  much  danger  of  our  raising 
the  water  high  enough  to  drown  ourselves, 
and  so  that  I  might  go.  I  suppose  he  thinks 
we  cannot  make  any  dam  at  all ;  but  I  think 


HYDRAULICS.  141 

we   can,   for  Charles  is  a  pretty  large    boy, 
and  knows  how  to  do   things  very  well. 

"But  I  am  rather  sleepy  now,  and  it  is 
nearly  time  for  me  to  go  to  bed.  This  is 
from  your  affectionate  son, 

"  ROLLO." 


LETTER  II.  —  Hollo's  Father  to  Hollo. 

"  Nov.  26. 
"Dear  Rollo, 

"  I  was  very  much  pleased  with  your 
letter,  and  I  read  it  aloud  to  mother  and 
Mary.  Nathan  listened  to  it  too,  with  a 
good  deal  of  interest,  and  wanted  me  to 
explain  it  to  him.  He  wants  me  to  let  him 
go  and  slide  upon  your  pond  too.  I  am  very 
glad  you  got  grandfather's  leave  to  play 
there.  You  worked  there,  I  inferred  from 
your  account,  some  days  before  you  obtained 
his  permission.  But  you  did  not  feel  quite 
easy  until  you  had  asked  him,  and  then  you 
enjoyed  your  play  there  a  great  deal  more 
than  you  had  done  before. 

"  Boys  are  very  often  tempted  to  do  things 
which  they  are    doubtful    about.     They   do 


HOLLO'S  CORRESPONDENCE. 

not  know  certainly  whether  they  are  right 
or  not.  They  do  not  ask  leave,  because  they 
are  not  sure  that  the  thing  is  wrong.  If 
they  were  sure  that  it  was  wrong,  perhaps 
they  would  not  do  it.  But  it  is  not  enough 
to  justify  any  particular  amusement  or  pleas 
ure,  that  the  boy  does  not  know  that  it  is 
wrong ;  he  ought  actually  to  know  that  it  is 
right. 

"  There  was  a  case  occurred  here  yester 
day,  that  illustrated  this  principle.  You  re 
member  the  little  apple  tree  that  you  and 
I  grafted  in  the  garden  a  year  or  two  ago  : 
well,  it  bore  last  year  one  large  apple.  It 
was  an  early  winter  apple ;  and  so  I  have 
been  keeping  it  down  cellar,  being  very 
curious  to  taste  of  it,  in  order  to  know  what 
sort  of  fruit  my  tree  was  going  to  bear.  I 
observed  a  few  days  ago  that  it  was  begin 
ning  to  get  mellow,  and  so  I  brought  it  up 
and  laid  it  down  upon  the  table  in  the 
parlor,  intending,  when  mother  came  in,  to 
rut  and  eat  it.  While  I  was  gone  out  of 
the  room  a  little  while,  however,  Nathan 
came  along  to  the  table,  and  took  the  apple, 
and  ate  it;  and  when  I  came  in  he  was 
just  throwing  the  core  into  the  fire. 


HYDRAULICS. 

•' '  Why,  Nathan,'  said  I,  '  yon  have  eaten 
my  apple.' 

" '  Yes,  father,'  said  Nathan,  « I  found  an 
apple  on  the  table,  and  I  ate  it.' 

" '  But  yon  ought  not  to  have  eaten  it, 
Nathan,'  said  I. 

"  '  Why,  father,'  said  he,  c  I  did  not  know- 
that  you  wanted  it.' 

"  *  True,'  replied  I,  '  but  you  ought  not 
to  have  eaten  it  unless  you  knew  positively 
that  I  did  not.' 

"  In  this  case  there  was  very  little  harm 
done  ;  for,  after  all,  there  was  only  a  little 
gratification  to  my  curiosity  lost  by  the  acci 
dent  ;  but  in  many  cases  the  evil  might  be 
very  serious.  So  that  it  is  the  duty  of 
children  to  avoid  doing  not  only  those  things 
which  are  wrong,  but  also  those  things 
which  are  doubtful ;  that  is,  those  in  respect 
to  which  they  do  not  know  whether  they 
are  wrong  or  not.  You  did  very  right, 
therefore,  to  ask  your  grandfather  whether 
you  might  play  with  Charles  and  the  other 
boys,  down  by  the  old  mill-dam,  though 
I  agree  with  him  that  it  is  not  very  probable 
that  you  will  raise  the  water  mmh,  unless 


141  ROLLO'S    CORRESPONDENCE. 

your   friend    Charles    is   much   more   of    an 
engineer  than  I  suppose  he  is. 

"  Very  affectionately,  yours, 

"  FATHER  " 


LETTER  III.  —  Rollo  to  his  Father. 

11  Grandfather's,  Dec.  1. 

"  Dear  Father, 

"  We  have  succeeded  in  raising  the 
water,  after  all.  Charles  planned  it,  and  it 
succeeds  perfectly.  You  see  the  old  gateway 
was  broken  and  tumbled  in,  and  the  brook 
ran  through  the  gap.  It  is  not  a  very  large 
brook.  The  way  that  Charles  managed  was 
this.  He  brought  down  a  crowbar,  and  he 
and  another  big  boy  pried  out  the  old  pieces 
of  the  gateway,  and  then  the  water  ran 
through  better.  Then  he  put  a  log  across, 
and  told  us  all  to  bring  stones,  great  and 
small,  and  tumble  them  in  above  and  below 
the  log.  He  told  us  to  work  slow,  so  that 
we  could  hold  out  a  long  time.  We  did 
this  two  or  three  afternoons.  Then  Charles 
brought  a  wheelbarrow  and  some  shovels,  and 


HE     BROUGHT     DOWN    A    CROWBAR         Page  144. 


HYDRAULICS.  145 

wheeled  on  some  gravel.  Charles  wheeled, 
and  the  other  boys  loaded.  He  pnt  down  a 
board  upon  the  ground,  so  as  to  make  it 
wheel  easy.  He  tipped  the  wheelbarrow 
loads  over  upon  the  stones,  on  the  upper  side 
of  the  log,  and  all  the  gravel  fell  out  and 
filled  up  the  holes  between  the  stones,  and 
so  began  to  stop. the  water.  The  more  we 
wheeled  on  the  gravel,  the  more  it  kept 
rising ;  and  at  last  it  began  to  run  over  the 
log;  and  now  there  is  quite  a  big  little  pond. 
The  reason  why  we  put  a  log  for  the  top 
is,  that  the  water  would  wear  away  the 
gravel  if  it  had  run  directly  over  it.  At 
least  so  Charles  says. 

"  It  is  quite  a  large  pond  now,  and  as 
soon  as  we  have  some  cold  nights,  it  will 
freeze,  so  that  we  can  skate  on  it.  And  there 
is  another  thing  that  we  are  going  to  do 
As  soon  as  we  have  skated  all  over  the  ice, 
and  cut  it  up  so  as  to  spoil  the  smoothness 
of  it,  Charles  says  we  can  put  another  log 
or  timber  on  the  top  of  the  one  we  have 
now,  and  then  put  some  more  gravel  before 
it,  and  that  will  make  the  water  rise  higher 
still,  and  overflow  the  ice;  and  then  it  will 
freeze  again,  and  so  make  the  ice  all  smooth, 
g  13 


116  ROLLCTS    CORRESPONDENCE. 

as  it  was  at  first.  But  I  should  not  think 
it  would  do  very  well,  for  the  water  will  rise 
under  the  ice,  and  not  on  the  top  of  it ;  and 
that  would  not  do  any  good.  1  think  we 
had  better  go  and  make  a  dam  farther  up  the 
stream,  just  above  the  end  of  our  pond  ;  and 
then,  when  the  water  rises  in  that  upper  dam, 
we  can  let  it  run  over  upon  the  top  of  the 
ice,  and  then  it  will  do  some  good. 

"  At  least  /  think  so,  though  Charles  says 
it  will  not  make  any  difference.  But  perhaps 
he  did  not  understand  me  very  well,  for  I 
told  him  one  day,  when  he  was  at  our  house, 
on  his  father's  gay  horse,  which  kept  pran 
cing  and  capering  about  all  the  time,  and  so 
he  could  not  attend  very  well  to  what  I  was 
saying. 

"Good  by. 

"  ROLLO.' 


LETTER  IV.  —  Hollo's  Father  to  Rollo. 

"  Dec.  5 
u  My  dear  Son, 

"  I  wos  much  pleased  with  your  last 
letter.  1  am  glad  to  have  you  give  me  such 
minute  and  particular  accounts  of  what  hap- 


HYDRAULICS.  147 

pens  to  you,  and  interests  you,  when  you  are 
away  from  home.  I  did  not  notice  any  thing 
which  I  should  wish  to  correct  in  it,  unless 
it  be  the  phrase,  'big  little  pond/  which, 
though  it  conveys  your  idea  well  enough,  is 
a  somewhat  incongruous  expression  in  form. 
As  to  your  plans  for  getting  the  water  upon 
the  top  of  the  ice,  the  philosophy  of  the  thing 
is  thus : 

"  Water  is  heavier  than  ice,  and,  conse 
quently,  if  both  can  move  freely,  the  water 
will  take  the  lowest  place,  and  buoy  the  ice 
up  to  the  top.  And,  as  Charles  says,  it  will 
make  no  difference  whether  you  pour  the 
water  upon  the  top  of  the  ice  or  in  under  it 
If  you  had  a  piece  of  ice  in  a  tumbler,  for 
example,  and  were  to  pour  the  water  in  upon 
the  top  of  it,  it  would  run  off  down  the  sides, 
and  keep  buoying  it  up  as  fast  as  the  tumbler 
got  filled.  And  so,  if  the  ice  was  perfectly 
flat,  the  water  would  still  spread  out  all  over 
it,  and  run  down  at  the  edges.  It  will  make 
no  difference,  therefore,  whether  you  dam  up 
the  water  below  your  pond  or  above  it.  For 
if  you  dam  it  below,  it  will  then,  as  you  sup 
pose,  introduce  the  water  under  the  ice,  and 


148 


raise  it  up.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  you  dam 
it  above,  it  will  then,  it  is  true,  pour  the  water 
over  upon  the  top  of  the  ice  ;  but  then  the 
water  would  only  run  over  it  until  it  found 
fissures  or  holes,  and  then  it  would  at  once 
settle  down  into  all  these,  and  so  buoy  the 
ice  up,  and  keep  it  always  upon  the  surface. 

"  There  is  only  one  mode  that  I  know  of, 
by  which  it  is  possible  to  make  water  remain 
upon  the  top  of  ice,  and  that  is,  by  fastening 
the  ice  down.  For  as  ice  is  lighter  than 
water,  it  will  certainly  rise  if  it  can,  which 
ever  way  the  water  may  come  in.  But  there 
are  two  or  three  modes  by  which  a  sheet  of 
ice  may  be  fastened  down  in  such  a  case. 

"  1.  When  the  pond  is  pretty  small,  or  the 
ice  pretty  thick  in  proportion  to  the  size  of 
the  pond,  the  stiffness  of  the  ice  itself,  and  its 
adhesion  to  the  shores,  will  keep  it  down. 
Bat  if  the  pond  is  large,  or  the  ice  thin,  then 
the  rise  of  the  water  will  force  up  the  ice  in 
the  middle,  and  break  it  away  at  the  edges. 
This  is  the  case  with  ice  in  rivers,  and  in  the 
sea,  where  the  tide  rises  and  falls.  The  ris 
ing  of  the  water  breaks  the  ice  off  from  the 
shores  and  wharves,  and  raises  it  all  up  to 


HYDRAULICS.  149 

gether.  If  you  stand  on  the  shores  when  the 
tide  is  rising,  you  can  hear  the  ice  breaking  as 
the  water  forces  it  up. 

"  2.  Another  way  by  which  ice  may  become 
fastened,  so  as  to  allow  the  water  to  overflow 
it,  is  this :  When  the  pond  is  very  shallow, 
so  that  the  ice  upon  the  top  of  it  touches  the 
grass  and  bushes  and  hummocks  of  ground  in 
a  good  many  places,  this  fastens  it  down  ;  and 
then,  when  the  water  rises,  it  will  overflow  the 
ice,  as  the  ice  cannot  rise  with  it.  I  do  not 
know  how  it  is  with  your  pond  in  this  re 
spect.  If  the  surface  of  the  water  does  not 
lie  near  enough  to  the  surface  of  the  ground 
for  this  purpose,  I  don't  know  but  that  you 
might  secure  the  result  in  the  following 
mode,  viz. : 

"  3.  Make  little  holes  in  the  ice,  and  drive 
stakes  down  here  and  there,  into  the  ground 
below,  and  then  let  them  freeze  in.  It  is  pos 
sible  that  in  this  way  you  might  keep  down 
a  small  sheet  of  ice,  so  that  the  water  would 
flow  over  it.  If  Charles  should  conclude  to 
try  any  such  plan,  I  advise  you  to  make  holes 
first  with  the  iron  bar,  through  the  ice,  down 
oretty  deep  into  the  groi  nd  below,  and  then 
to  drive  the  stakes  down  nearl  level  with  the 


150 

fop  of  the  ice  ;  and  then,  when  you  overflow 
the  ice,  the  tops  of  the  stakes  will  be  covered, 
and  so  they  will  not  be  in  your  way  in  the 
skating. 

"  But  what  long  letters  am  writing  about 
your  ice  and  skating  !  I  only  intended  to  have 
said  a  few  words.  It  is  rather  Jonas's  busi 
ness  to  correspond  with  you  on  this  subject. 
I  believe  1  must  refer  the  subject  to  him, 
hereafter. 

"  Mary  wants  to  add  a  Postscript  to  this  let 
ter,  and  accordingly  I  leave  her  a  space. 
"  Your  affectionate  father, 

«T.  H." 

"P.  S.  You  would  have  laughed  to  see 
mother  give  Nathan  some  medicine  this  morn 
ing.  It  was  just  after  breakfast,  and  Nathan 
fell  down  and  gave  his  head  a  bump.  Mother 
took  him  up,  and  amused  him,  and  got  him 
quiet,  and  then  let  him  run  about  again.  But 
in  a  few  minutes  he  began  to  cry  again,  and 
came  back,  and  said  his  head  ached  very  bad. 

" '  O,  then  I  must  give  you  some  medi 
cine,'  said  mother.  'Poor  little  fellow,  he 
has  fallen  down,  and  is  sick,  and  I  must  give 
him  some  medicine.' 


HYDRAULICS.  151 

"  So  she  poured  out  a  little  cream  out  of 
the  cream-pitcher  into  a  tea-spoon,  and  then 
said, 

"  ( Now  I  must  have  some  powder  to  mix 
with  the  medicine.' 

"  Then  she  took  the  sugar-bowl,  and  took 
up  some  sugar,  and  mixed  it  with  the  cream 
in  the  spoon. 

"  At  this  Nathan  began  to  look  pleased,  and 
to  smile  through  his  tears;  partly,  I  suppose, 
because  he  was  interested  in  the  amusement 
of  playing  sick,  and  partly  because  he  thought 
he  should  like  the  taste  of  the  cream  "and 
sugar.  So  mother  took  him  up  in  her  lap, 
and  said, 

"  '  I  must  take  up  this  boy,  and  give  him 
his  medicine.  Now  you  must  be  a  very  good 
boy,  and  take  your  medicine  well.'  So  she 
held  his  head  with  one  hand,  and  brought  up 
the  spoon  with  the  other,  as  if  it  was  really 
something  bitter  and  disagreeable,  and  said, 
*  Now  you  must  open  your  mouth  and  swal 
low  it  down  like  a  good  boy.' 

"  So  Nathan  opened  his  mouth  wide,  with 
a,  curious-looking  smile  upon  the  rest  of  his 
face,  and  mother  put  in  the  spoon,  pretend- 


ing   to   look  very   anxious, but   I   can't 

write  any  more,  for  I  am  at  the   end  of  the 

paper. 

"MARY." 


LETTER  V.  —  Rollo  to  Mary. 

"  Grandfather's,  Dec.  10 

"  Dear  Mary, 

"  I  am  much  obliged  to  you  for  youi 
Postscript  to  father's  letter.  I  should  have 
liked  to  have  known  the  rest  of  the  story. 
But  I  suppose  that  Nathan  took  his  medicine 
like  a  good  boy,  and  then  jumped  down  and 
ran  away  to  play.  I  should  think  it  was  a 
very  good  medicine  for  a  little  bump. 

"  Tell  father  I  am  very  much  obliged  tc 
him  for  my  skates.  They  came  safe  with 
the  letter.  I  should  have  sent  for  them,  but 
Charles  said  he  had  a  small  pair  which  he 
used  to  skate  upon  when  he  was  a  boy,  and 
he  would  lend  them  to  me.  But  my  own 
are  a  groat  deal  better. 

"  Our  pond  has  frozen  over  beautifully,  and 
it  makes  a  very  good  beating-ground,  only  it 
isn't  frozen  very  near  the  gate  ;  that  is,  the 


HYDRAULICS.  153 

place  where  the  old  gate  was,  and  where  the 
water  now  runs  over  our  piece  of  timber. 
Before  we  dammed  it  up,  it  did  not  freeze  at 
all,  and  one  of  the  boys  told  me  that  it  did 
not  freeze  all  last  winter  ;  only  here  and  there 
in  little  patches.  I  don't  see  why  a  dam 
should  make  it  freeze.  If  you  know,  I  wish 
you  would  tell  me,  or  else  ask  father.  After 
we  have  cut  the  ice  all  up  with  our  skates, 
we  are  going  to  raise  the  water  higher 
Charles  says  it  won't  be  much  work  to  do 
that,  for  now  we  have  got  a  good  foundation. 
The  reason  why  it  took  us  so  long  to  make 
the  dam  was,  because  we  could  only  work 
Wednesday  and  Saturday  afternoons,  because 
Charles  goes  to  school  the  rest  of  the  time. 
And  now  he  does  not  skate  any  ;  at  least, 
he  has  not  yet,  for  there  is  going  to  be 
an  examination  at  his  school,  and  he  is 
busy  all  the  time  at  home  ciphering  in  frac 
tions. 

"Good  by. 

"  ROLLO." 

"  Postscript.  T  am  going  to  the  examina 
tion,  and  1  will  write  you  about  it.  Charles 
nvited  me  to  go  with  him,  and  grandfather 
says  [  may. 


1.54  HOLLO'S  COKRESPONDENCE. 

"  Second  Postscript. 

"  Dec.  13 

•'<  Dear  Father, 

"  I  meant  to  have  sent  this  letter  be 
fore,  but  I  forgot  it.  We  have  raised  our 
dam,  and  it  succeeded  completely.  The  wa 
ter  covered  the  old  ice  all  over,  about  two 
inches  ;  only  in  one  place,  where  the  water 
was  deep,  and  there  was  no  grass  or  bushes 
to  hold  it  down,  the  ice  bulged  up.  Charles 
says,  next  time  he  is  going  to  anchor  that  piece 
with  stakes,  and  then  we  can  smooth  over 
the  whole  with  new  ice  whenever  we  want  to. 

"  HOLLO." 


LETTER  VI.  —  Jonas  to  Rollo. 

"Dec.  15. 

"  My  dear  Friend, 

"  Your  father  came  out  this  evening, 

O7 

while  I  was  eating  my  supper,  and  read  me 
your  letter  to  your  sister  Mary.  And  he 
asked  me  if  I  would  answer  that  part  of  it 
about  the  brook  freezing  after  it  was  dammed 
up.  when  it  would  not  before.  He  first  asked 
me  if  I  understood  it ;  and  I  told  him  I  un- 


HYDRAULICS. 

derstood  something  about  it,  and  that  I  would 
explain  to  you  all  I  did  understand. 

"  Watei  will  not  freeze  when  it  is  running 
at  least  if  it  is  running  fast.  I  do  not  know 
why.  I  only  know  the  fact.  It  does  not 
freeze  out  in  the  open  sea,  where  the  waves 
are  running  all  the  time  ;  nor  in  aqueduct 
spouts ;  nor  in  falls  and  rapids,  in  brooks  and 
rivers;  but  when  water  is  still, or  nearly  still, 
then  it  can  freeze. 

"  Now,  the  reason  why  water  freezes  above 
a  dam  in  a  brook  is,  that  it  is  made  more  still 
by  the  dam.  Perhaps  you  will  ask  how  it  is 
that  damming  the  water  below,  makes  it  any 
more  still  above,  since  the  brook  keeps  run 
ning  all  the  time,  and  just  as  much  water 
must  come  in  and  pass  through  after  the  dam 
is  built,  as  before.  The  reason  is,  that  it  has 
a.  much  wider  and  deeper  space  to  run  in,  after 
the  dam  is  built.  The  dam  raises  the  water, 
and  so  makes  it  deeper ;  and  then  it  spreads 
out  on  each  side,  and  that  makes  it  wider ; 
and  FO  the  water  has  a  much  more  capacious 
channel,  and  can  move  much  more  slowly,  and 
yet  the  same  quantity  passes  along  as  there 
did  before.  But  just  over  the  dam  itself,  the 
passage  for  the  water  is  very  shallow  and 


J56  HOLLO'S   CORRESPONDENCE. 

narrow ;  and  the  water,  having  but  little 
space  there,  has  to  move  very  swift,  to  get 
over  as  fast  as  it  comes  in  above  ;  so  that 
the  reason  why  the  dam  helps  cause  the  wa 
ter  to  freeze  is,  because  it  gives  it  more  space, 
and  so  allows  it  to  move  very  sloAvly.  But 
what  the  reason  is  that  water  will  freeze 
easier  when  it  is  still  than  when  it  is  moving, 
I  never  knew.  Melted  lead  will  cool  and 
harden,  when  you  shake  it  about,  as  well  as 
when  it  is  standing  still ;  at  least,  I  believe 
it  does. 

"  I  like-  your  plan  of  raising  the  water  to 
cover  the  old  ice,  so  as  to  make  good  skating  ; 
and  I  am  very  glad  that  you  have  found  so 
intelligent,  and  faithful,  and  careful  a  play 
mate  as  Charles. 

"'  I  am,  very  sincerely,  your  friend, 

"  JONAS/' 


157 


THE    RETURN. 

WHEN  Jonas  had  finished  his  letter  to  Rol« 
lo,  he  folded  it  carefully,  superscribed  it,  and 
carried  it  in  to  Mr.  Holiday. 

"  Shall  I  read  it,  Jonas  ?  "  said  Mr.  Holiday. 

"  Certainly,  sir,"  said  Jonas;  "I  left  it  un 
sealed  on  purpose." 

11  Take  a  seat,  then,  Jonas,  a  moment," 
said  Mr.  Holiday,  "  while  I  run  it  over." 

So  Jonas  took  his  seat,  and  Mr.  Holiday 
read  the  letter,  murmuring  inarticulately  to 
himself,  as  his  eye  passed  along  the  lines. 

"  Very  well,"  said  Mr.  Holiday,  at  length, 
as  he  finished  the  letter  and  folded  it  up 
again.  "  Then  you  know  this  Charles,  that 
Rollo  tells  us  so  much  about.  You  have 
seen  him,  I  suppose,  when  you  have  been  at 
my  father's." 

11  No,  sir,"  said  Jonas,  "  I  never  saw  him." 

"  Then  how  do  you  know  any  thing  about 
his  character  ?  " 

"  I  only  judged  from  Rollo's  letters,  sir ; 
^ 


158  HOLLO'S  CORULSPONDENCE. 

you  recollect  that  you  have  shown  me  his 
other  letters  home." 

"  Yes  ;  but  1  had  forgotten  that  Rollo  had 
said  any  thing  about  his  character." 

"  No,  sir,"  replied  Jonas,  "  I  only  judged 
from  circumstances." 

"  O;"  said  Mr.  Holiday,  "  yes.  Well,  what 
circumstances  led  you  to  think  that  he  was 
an  intelligent,  faithful,  and  trustworthy 
boy  ?  " 

"  I  thought,  sir,"  replied  Jonas.  "  that  he 
must  be  intelligent,  from  his  telling  the  boys 
to  work  slow,  so  as  to  be  able  to  hold  out 
longer.  It  takes  most  boys  a  great  while  to 
learn  that,  so  as  to  act  upon  it.  Then  I  knew 
he  was  faithful,  by  his  not  skating  until  aftei 
examination,  so  as  to  be  thoroughly  prepared 
in  his  fractions  ;  and  as  to  his  being  careful, 
I  thought  he  must  be  so,  or  else  his  father 
would  not  have  trusted  him  with  his  gay 
horse." 

Mr.  Holiday  smiled  at  Jonas's  shrewdness 
in  detecting  indications  of  character,  and  then 
sealed  up  the  letter,  with  a  wafer  from  a  box 
upon  his  table  ;  saying,  at  the  same  time, 
that  he  presumed  that  Jo.nas  was  correct  in 
his  inferences  in  this  case  ;  though  it  would 


THE    RETURN.  159 

not  be  always  safe  to  conclude,  that  a  boy 
was  careful  and  trustworthy,  from  the  cir 
cumstance  that  he  was  mounted  on  a  gay 
hoi>o. 

Jonas  then  rose  to  go  ;  but  Mr.  Holiday 
stopped  him  a  moment,  by  saying  that  it 
would  be  time,  before  long,  for  Rollo  to  come 
home.  "  I  believe,"  added  he,  "  I  shall  want 
to  send  you  for  him,  with  the  horse  and 
sleigh." 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  Jonas. 

"  How  much  more  wood  is  there  to  saw  ?  " 

"  I  should  think  there  might  be  three  or 
four  cords ;  and  there  are  two  more  cords  to 
come." 

"Four  and  two  are  six.  Let's  see, — it 
will  be  a  week  or  ten  days,  before  you  will 
have  it  all  sawed,  split,  and  piled.  We  will 
say  week  after  next.  You  may  be  making 
your  arrangements  to  go  week  after  next,  on 
Monday  or  Tuesday." 

':  Yes,  sir,"  said  Jonas,  "I  will  endeavor 
to  be  ready." 

So  Hollo's  father  went  on  with  his  reading, 
and  Jonas  went  away. 

At  the  appointed  time,  Jonas  set  off  in  the 


160 


sleigh  to  bring  Hollo  home.  There  had  been 
quite  a  deep  snow  about  a  week  before  he 
went,  and  that  had  made  very  good  sleigh 
ing.  The  morning  when  Jonas  started  from 
home,  it  was  very  mild  and  pleasant  weather  ; 
and  when  he  was  all  ready  to  go,  Mr.  Holi 
day  came  out  to  see  him  safely  off. 

"  I  think,  sir,  there  is  some  prospect  of  a 
thaw,"  said  Jonas. 

"  Is  there  ?  "  said  Mr.  Holiday,  looking 
around. 

"  The  wind  is  southerly,  and  there  is  a 
long  fog-bank  lying  off  south." 

"  Well,"  said  Mr.  Holiday,  "  if  it  rains,  you 
must  wait  there  till  there  is  good  weather." 

Jonas  got  into  the  sleigh,  and  rode  along. 
It  continued  pretty  pleasant  during  most  of 
the  day  ;  but  towards  the  middle  of  the  af 
ternoon,  clouds  thickened  over  all  the  sky, 
and  it  began  to  rain.  The  horse's  feet 
slumped  through  the  deep  snow,  which  had 
become  very  soft.  Jonas  found  it  somewhat 
difficult  to  get  along.  In  an  hour  or  two 
more  it  rained  faster.  This  made  it  worse  ; 
and  Jonas  did  not  arrive  at  the  end  of  his 
jmrney  until  after  dark. 

Hollo  did  not  know  whether  to  be  glad  or 


THE    RETURN.  161 

sorry,  that  Jonas  had  come  to  carry  him  home. 
He  wanted  to  stay  at  his  grandfather's,  and 
he  wanted  to  go  home. 

"  At  any  rate,"  said  he  to  Jonas,  "  I  am 
very  sorry  it  rains,  because  I  wanted  you  to 
go  down  and  see  our  dam." 

"  It  would  be  too  late  to  go  and  see  it  to 
night,"  said  Jonas,  "  even  if  it  did  not  rain." 

"  O,  no,"  said  Rollo  ;  "  we  can  go  down 
in  the  evening.  We  had  a  capital  time  ska 
ting  there  examination  night." 

"  Did  you  ?  "  said  Jonas. 

"  Yes,"  replied  Rollo.  "  The  examination 
was  day  before  yesterday,  and  in  the  evening 
we  all  went  down  and  skated  till  nine  o'clock. 
We  built  a  great  bonfire  upon  the  ice,  and 
skated  around  it.  I  want  you  to  see  the 
place,  to  see  if  you  can't  make  such  a  one 
at  our  house." 

Jonas  said  he  would  try  to  go  and  see  it 
before  he  went  home.  The  next  morning, 
when  he  looked  out  of  the  window  to  see 
what  the  weather  was,  he  found  that  it  had 
cleared  up  in  the  night,  and  that  the  wind 
was  blowing  heavily  from  the  north- west. 

"  Ah,"  said  he,  "  we  are  going  to  have  it 
cold  again." 
g*        14* 


102 


He  went  out  into  the  barn,  to  feed  and 
\vater  his  horse,  and  to  help  the  men  take 
care  of  the  stock  belonging  to  the  farm. 

o         O 

The  wind  blew  high,  and  roared  among  the 
tops  of  the  trees  ;  but  it  was  warm  and  com 
fortable  in  the  barn,  under  the  great  mows  of 
hay,  which  stretched  along  on  each  side  upon 
the  long  scaffolds  overhead,  hanging  down 
towards  the  centre  like  the  thatch  of  a  cot 
tage.  Jonas  helped  the  men  turn  out  the 
cattle,  and  he  noticed  that  the  wet  snow  was 
just  beginning  to  stiffen. 

Jonas  was  preparing  to  go  home  that  day, 
but  the  men  said  he  had  better  not.  They 
told  him  that  it  would  be  freezing  all  day  ; 
but  that  the  ice,  which  would  be  forming  upon 
the  top  of  the  soaked  snow,  would  not  bear, 
but  would  be  just  hard  enough  to  cut  the 
horse's  feet ;  and  that,  if  he  would  wait  until 
the  next  day,  it  would  probably  be  beautiful 
sleighing,  for  the  roads  would  be  smooth 
and  icy. 

Jonas  went  in,  just  before  breakfast,  to  ask 
Rollo's  grandfather  what  he  had  better  do  ; 
and  he  told  him,  that  he  thought  he  ought  to 
stii y  by  all  means.  So  he  concluded  to  stay. 

Rolio  wanted  him  to  go  down  immediately 


THE     RETURN.  163 

after  breakfast,  and  see  the  dam  ;  but  Jo 
nas  was  so  much  interested  in  helping  the 
men  about  their  morning's  work  upon  the 
farm,  that  he  did  not  want  to  go.  He  told 
Rollo  that  he  meant  to  have  a  farm  himself, 
one  of  these  days,  and  he  wanted  to  learn 
how  to  manage  it.  But  Rollo  was  so  urgent 
to  have  him  go,  that  he  concluded  to  run 
down  a  few  minutes,  as  soon  as  the  potatoes 
had  been  put  into  the  great  boiler,  in  the 
yard,  and  the  fire  had  been  built  under  it. 

Jonas  and  Rollo  then  went  along  a  path 
way,  which  led  down  a  woody  valley,  until 
they  came  to  the  old  mill-pond.  Jonas  liked 
it  very  much  indeed.  The  water  lay  upon 
it  several  inches  deep,  and  it  was  pouring 
over  the  old  log,  which  the  boys  had  laid  for 
the  top  of  the  dam,  in  torrents.  Rollo  threw 
a  stone  over  upon  the  water,  and  he  found, 
when  it  struck,  that  a  thin  and  tender  ice 
was  just  beginning  to  form  all  over  it.  Jonas 
was  very  much  pleased  with  the  place,  but 
he  was  in  haste  to  get  back  to  the  farm  ;  and 
even  Rollo  did  not  wish  to  stay  very  long, 
for  it  was  getting  to  be  very  cold.  So  they 
both  came  back  to  the  house  ;  and  Rollo 
spent  the  rest  of  the  forenoon  in  building 


1G4 


houses  in  the  kitchen,  of  corn-cobs,  whkh  he 
found  in  a  corner  of  the  granary,  and  brought 
in,  in  a  basket.  He  built  one  tower  a  little 
higher  than  his  head,  and  then  it  all  tumbled 
down. 

It  grew  colder  and  colder  all  day  ;  but  at 
night,  just  before  sundown,  the  wind  abated, 
and  the  air  gradually  became  calm.  So 
Jonas  and  Hollo  went  down  to  see  the  ice. 
They  found  it  frozen  quite  hard.  Jonas 
went  upon  it  first,  with  a  pole  in  his  hands, 
and  struck  the  ice  with  the  end  of  the  pole, 
and  Hollo  observed  that  it  was  quite  strong. 
So  Hollo  went  on  himself.  Presently  some 
other  boys  came  down,  and  they  built  a  fire 
upon  the  ice,  close  to  the  shore,  under  some 
large  trees  which  here  overhung  the  water. 
Rollo  went  up  and  got  his  skates,  and  lent 
them  to  Jonas  ;  and  he  himself  used  the 
pair  which  Charles  had  lent  him.  Jonas 
made  ludicrous  work  trying  to  skate.  He 
knew  nothing  about  it,  and  he  accordingly 
slipped  and  staggered  about,  to  the  great 
amusement  of  Rollo  and  his  companions,  — 
though  Jonas  made  more  slips  and  tumbles 
than  he  need  to  have  done,  for  the  very  pur 
pose  of  making  fun  for  the  boys. 


THE    RETURN.  165 

At  length,  however,  Jonas  said  he  had 
had  skating  enough ;  and  he  accordingly 
took  off  his  skates,  and  occupied  himself  in 
collecting  wood  and  making  a  greater  fire. 
Before  nine  o'clock,  Rollo  bade  his  skating- 
place  farewell,  gave  Charles  his  skates,  and 
thanked  him  for  the  use  of  them ;  and  then 
he  and  Jonas  went  to  the  house. 

The  next  morning  they  set  of*"  -jpon  their 
return.  The  road  was  icy,  arid  the  morning 
was  cold ;  but  it  was  calm,  and  therefore  it 
was  comfortable  riding.  They  passed  along 
the  same  road  where  they  had  driven  the 
cow  and  calf  some  months  before. 

When  they  had  got  nearly  home,  Rollo 
said  he  wished  he  had  such  a  skating-place 
as  that  at  his  grandfather's  ;  and  he  asked 
Jonas  what  made  him  take  his  skates  off  so 
soon  the  evening  before. 

"  O,  because,"  replied  Jonas,  "  I  could  riot 
skate,  you  know  ;  and,  of  course,  there  was 
not  much  pleasure  in  trying." 

"Yes;  but,  Jonas,"  said  Rollo,  "if  you 
had  kept  on,  you  would  have  learned  ;  and 
so  the  next  time,  perhaps,  you  would  have 
taken  pleasure  in  it.  I  don't  think  you  had 
much  patience  and  perseverance." 


IGG  ROLLO'S    CORRESPONDENCE. 

"  I  did  not  undertake  to  learn  to  skate," 
said  Jonas.  "  I  only  put  on  the  skates  a  few 
minutes  for  amusement.  If  I  had  really  be 
gun  to  learn  to  skate,  and  had  then  given  up 
in  a  few  minutes,  that  would  have  been  want 
of  perseverance." 

"  Why  don't  you  learn  to  skate  ? "  said 
Rollo. 

"  O,  I  don't  know,"  replied  Jonas.  "  Do 
you  think  it  would  be  a  good  plan  ? " 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo;  "  I  like  skating  very 
much  indeed." 

"I  suppose  it  is  good  play,"  said  Jonas; 
11  but  I  don't  have  much  time  to  play  ;  and  it 
would  not  be  best  for  me  to  play  much,  if  I 
had  time.  I  must  spend  my  leisure  in  learn 
ing  something  which  will  be  of  more  use  to 
rne  than  learning  to  skate." 

"  What  do  you  mean  to  be  when  you  are 
a  man  ?  "  said  Rollo. 

"  A  farmer,"  answered  Jonas.  "  That  is, 
I  expect  to  be  a  farmer,  though  I  have  not 
quite  decided." 

"  And  what  are  you  going  to  learn  in  youi 
leisure  hours,  which,  will  be  of  use  to  you  in 
farming  ?  "  asked  Rollo. 

"  O,  a  great  many  things,"  said  Jonas.    "  I 


THE    RETURN.  167 

have  been  studying  geometry  lately,  but  I 
don't  get  along  very  fast." 

-•'  What  is  geometry  about  ?  "  asked  Hollo. 

"  O,  it  is  about  angles,  and  squares,  ?.nd  all 
sorts  of  shapes.  My  book  says  it  is  the  sci 
ence  of  magnitude  and  form." 

"  Have  you  learned  any  lessons  in  it  yet ."  " 
said  Hollo. 

"  Why,  yes  —  two  or  three.  It  begins 
about  a  point.  A  point,  in  mathematics,  has 
no  length,  or  breadth,  or  thickness." 

"  What  is  it,  then  ?  "  said  Rollo. 

"  O,  it  is  nothing,"  said  Jonas,  "  only  a 
mere  — point,  with  no  breadth  at  all." 

•'Hasn't  it  any  breadth  at  all?"  asked 
Rollo. 

"  No,  none  at  all,"  said  Jonas.  "  If  there 
were  a  thousand  of  them  placed  close  to 
gether,  so  as  to  touch,  they  wouldn't  extend 
along  at  all,  but  would  only  make  a  single 
point." 

"  O,  Jonas  !  "  said  Rollo,  in  a  tone  of  in 
credulity.  "  What  if  there  were  a  million  ?  " 

"  That  would  not  make  any  difference/' 
said  Jonas.  "A  point  is  position  without 
magnitude." 

"  Magnitude  ?  "   repeated  Rollo,  musing  a 


168 

moment,  that  he  might  think  of  the  meaning 
of  the  word  —  "size,  —  O  yes,  no  size. — 
Then  how  can  it  prick  ?  " 

"Prick?"  said  Jonas. 

"  Yes,"  replied  Rollo  ;  "  a  point  will  prick, 
if  it  is  ever  so  fine." 

Jonas  laughed  at  this  reply,  and  concluded 
that  he  must  give  up  the  attempt  to  convey 
to  Rollo  an  idea  of  a  mathematical  point, 
until  he  should  be  a  little  older. 

After  this,  they  rode  along  without  any 
further  adventures  or  conversation,  until  they 
safely  reached  home,  about  an  hour  before 
supper-time.  Rollo  found  a  long  letter 
from  his  cousin  Lucy  ready  for  him  when 
he  arrived. 


169 


CHARLES. 


LETTER  I.  —  Lucy  to  Rollo. 

"  Thursday  Even'np 

"  My  dear  Cousin  Rollo, 

"  I  have  missed  you  very  much  indeed, 
since  you  have  been  gone  to  your  grandfa 
ther's.  I  went  over  to  your  house,  to  see  if 
you  had  not  returned,  but  you  had  not  come, 
and  the  house  looked  desolate  and  forsaken. 
Jonas  was  gone,  and  Nathan  was  asleep  ;  and 
Mary  and  your  mother  were  busy.  I  went 
around  from  room  to  room,  but  I  could  not 
find  any  body  to  play  with,  or  any  thing  to  do. 
I  went  to  the  back  door,  at  the  end  of  the 
entry,  and  looked  out  into  the  garden-yard  ; 
but  it  was  cold  and  desolate.  The  snow  was 
blowing  about  the  yard,  and  the  leaves  had 
all  gone  from  the  trees  ;  and  there  was  a  great 
snow-drift  all  over  your  sand-garden,  in  the 
corner. 

"  It  was  too  ':old  for  me  to  stay  there,  and 
so  I  came  in  ;    and,  by  this   time,   Nathan 
h  15 


170 


waked  up,  and  aunt  told  me  I  might  play 
with  him.  She  said  he  had  got  some  new 
blocks,  and  that  he  and  I  might  go  out  and 
play  with  them,  in  the  back  kitchen  ;  and 
that  I  might  first  build  a  fire  there,  to  make 
it  warm.  I  did  not  care  much  about  playing 
with  the  blocks,  though  I  thought  I  should 
like  very  well  to  build  the  fire ;  so  Nathan 
and  I  went  out.  We  carried  out  Nathan's 
blocks  in  a  basket.  He  helped  me  bring  in 
the  wood,  and  the  kindling-sticks ;  arid  we 
made  a  capital  fire.  I  wished  very  much 
that  you  had  been  there. 

"I  helped  Nathan  build  him  a  farm,  first. 
We  built  a  house  and  a  barn,  and  then 
we  made  fences,  by  means  of  some  long 
blocks,  which  we  laid  down,  end  to  end. 
Then  Nathan  took  his  little  horse  and  cart, 
and  played  haul  wood,  and  hay,  and  potatoes, 
about  his  farm.  He  had  sticks  for  wood,  and 
beans  for  potatoes.  He  had  his  beans  in  a 
little  bag. 

"  But,  pretty  soon,  I  got  tired  of  Nathan's 
clocks,  and  I  went  into  the  kitchen,  to  see 
what  Dorothy  was  doing.  She  was  making 
some  bread  ;  and  she  gave  rne  a  little  of  the 
dough,  and  I  carried  it  out  to  the  back  kitchen. 


CHARLES.  171 

Nathan  let  me  have  one  of  his  blocks  to 
knead  it  on.  It  was  a  large,  flat  piece  of 
wood,  and  it  did  very  well  indeed. 

"  We  made  a  number  of  little  cakes,  and 
then  we  baked  them  in  our  little  oven. 

"  We  made  our  oven  ourselves,  in  the  back 
kitchen.  Dorothy  showed  us  how.  The 
way  we  did  it,  was  this.  We  scraped  away 
the  coals  and  ashes,  and  then  put  our  cakes 
down,  and  covered  them  over  with  an  old 
saucer,  bottom  upwards,  which  Dorothy  gave 
us.  This  was  our  oven,  and  it  baked  very 
well. 

"  Good  by. 

"  LUCY. 

"P.  S.  We  put  hot  ashes  on  the  top  of 
the  saucer." 


LETTER  II.  —  Rollo  to  Charles. 

"Friday  Evening. 

"  Dear  Charles, 

"  I  am  much  obliged  to  you  for  the 
pains  you  took  to  make  me  and  the  other 
boys  such  a  good  skating-place,  when  I  was 
at  my  grandfather's.  I  have  concluded  to 


172  HOLLO'S  coRi<ESPorci>ENCf:. 

write  you  a  letter,  to  let  you  know  what  a 
good  ska  ting-place  we  have  had  here. 

"  You  remember  it  rained  the  day  before  I 
come  home  from  grandfather's ;  and  that 
made  a  freshet  in  the  brook.  Well,  great 
rains  make  freshets  in  rivers,  as  well  as  * 
brooks ;  and  there  is  a  river  opposite  my  fa 
ther's  house.  First,  right  before  my  father's 
house  is  a  road ;  across  the  road  there  are 
great  meadows ;  and  away  over  in  the  mid 
dle  of  the  meadows,  the  river  flows,  winding 
along  in  a  very  crooked  course.  There  are 
a  great  many  elm  trees  scattered  all  about 
the  meadows. 

"  Day  before  yesterday  there  was  another 
great  rain;  and  the  river  began  to  rise.  Pres 
ently  the  water  began  to  run  into  some  low 
places,  and  spread  all  around  them  more  and 
more  ;  and  this  made  some  great  ponds.  I 
watched  them  out  of  the  parlor  windows. 
I  told  my  father  I  was  very  glad. 

"  'Why?'  said  my  father. 

"  'Because,'  said  I,  'now  I  can  have  a 
noble,  great  skating-place.' 

"  '  That  is  not  certain,'  said  he. 

"  '  Why  not  ? 7  said  I. 

"  <  Because,'  said  he,  '  the  water  will  begin 


CHARLES.  173 

to  run  off  again,  when  the  storm  is  over,  and 
the  river  subsides.' 

"  I  was  disappointed  when  I  heard  this, 
for  I  was  in  hopes  those  great  ponds  would 
stay  on  the  meadows  until  they  had  time  to 
freeze  over,  and  so  make  me  a  great  skating- 
ground.  However,  my  father  told  me  that 
some  of  the  ponds  would  remain,  and  that, 
perhaps,  a  great  deal  of  the  surface  of  the 
water  would  freeze  over,  before  it  would 
have  time  to  run  off. 

"  I  asked  him  if  that  would  keep  the  wa 
ter  from  running  off.  He  said  no  ;  but  that 
the  water  would  run  out  from  under  the  ice, 
and  let  the  ice  settle  down  upon  the  ground  ; 
and  that,  perhaps,  I  could  skate  upon  it  then. 

"  It  turned  out  just  as  father  had  foretold. 
For,  in  the  night,  it  cleared  up,  and  the  wind 
blew  very  cold  from  the  north.  The  next, 
morning,  as  soon  as  I  got  up,  I  looked  out  of 
the  window,  to  see  if  the  ponds  had  all  gone 
away  ;  but  they  had  not.  They  were  there, 
all  together  in  one  great  pond,  stretching  all 
around  the  meadow.  They  were  beginning 
to  freeze  over,  and  there  was  a  white  fringe 
all  around  the  edges. 

"  After  breakfast,  Jonas  and  I  went  down 
15* 


174 


to  see  them.  Jonas  is  the  boy  that  came  af 
ter  me  to  grandfather's.  I  found  out  what 
the  white  fringe  was.  I  could  not  think, 
when  I  first  saw  it.  It  was  thin,  white  ice, 
lying  all  along  the  margin.  Jonas  told  me 
that  the  water  was  higher  when  it  began  to 
freeze,  in  the  night,  than  it  was  then,  when 
we  went  down  to  see  it,  and  that  it  had 
skimmed  over  with  thin  ice  ;  and  that,  then, 
the  water  had  settled,  and  let  the  ice  down 
upon  the  edges  of  the  pond,  all  around  ;  and 
this  was  what  made  the  white  fringe.  I 
asked  him  what  made  it  white,  and  he  said 
it  was  because  there  was  air  under  it.  He 
said  he  had  observed  that  ice,  which  had  air 
under  it,  generally  looked  white  ;  and  ice 
that  had  water  under  it  generally  looked 
black.  I  asked  him  why  it  was  so,  but  he 
said  he  did  not  know.  Do  you  know  ? 

"  It  is  not  always  so,  for  we  found  some 
white  ice,  in  one  place,  which  was  resting 
upon  water. 

<  Good  by. 

"  HOLLO." 


CHARLES.  175 

LETTER  III.  —  Rollo  to  Charles. 

"  Saturday. 

fi  Dear  Charles, 

"  I  wrote  you  a  letter,  yesterday,  about 
the  water  rising  on  the  meadows,  and  begin 
ning  to  freeze  there  ;  and  now  I  am  going  to 
write  you  more  about  it.  I  sent  the  first 
letter  this  morning,  by  a  man  who  was  going 
to  my  grandfather's;  but  I  do  not  know 
when  I  shall  be  able  to  send  this.  The  rea 
son  why  I  write  such  good  long  letters  is, 
that  my  mother  lets  me  write  in  my  study 
hours  ;  because,  she  says,  she  wants  me  to 
learn  to  write  letters. 

"  I  have  forgotten,  exactly,  where  I  left 
off.  I  bc'ieve  that  Jonas  and  I  were  down, 
looking  at  the  ice.  It  was  just  beginning  to 
freeze,  and  the  water  was  running  away 
slowly  from  underneath.  Jonas  said  that 
Jack  Frost  had  caught  the  water  up  on  the 
bank,  and  was  trying  to  chain  it  there  as 
fast  as  he  could  ;  and  that  the  water  was  try 
ing  to  get  away  underneath,  and  escape  back 
into  its  old  place,  in  the  bed  of  the  river, 
again. 

"  We  could  see  how  much  it  had  fallen,  by 
the  trees  around  there  ;  because,  when  the 


water  was  up  at  the  highest,  it  froze  a  little 
around  all  the  trees  ;  and  when  it  settled,  it 
left  the  ice  there,  and  that  made  a  mark 
by  which  we  could  tell  how  high  it  had 
been. 

"  But  it  was  too  cold  for  us  to  stay  long, 
and  so  we  came  in.  I  was  glad  it  was  so 
cold,  for  I  thought  that  Jack  Frost  would  be 
able  to  seize  so  much  more  of  the  water.  I 
expect  it  froze  very  hard,  indeed,  last  night. 
After  lessons,  I  am  going  down  to  try  it.  My 
boots  are  down  at  the  fire,  warming,  and  my 
skates  are  all  ready.  Jonas  is  going  down 
with  rne  to  try  the  ice.  It  is  now  a  little 
more  than  half  past  ten.  As  soon  as  it  is 
eleven,  we  are  going. 

"  Sincerely  yours, 

"ROLLO." 


LETTER  IV.  —  Charles  to  Rollo. 

"Jan.  4. 

"Dear  Rollo, 

"  I  was  very  glad  to  find  that  you 
had  remembered  our  old  skating-ground, 
and  the  good  times  we  used  to  have  when 


CHARLES.  177 

you  was  at  your  grandfather's;  and  I  was 
much  interested  in  your  account  of  your 
freshet  ponds  on  the  intervals.  As  to  the 
question  about  the  color  of  the  ice,  I  never 
had  thought  of  it  before  ;  though,  when  I 
read  your  letter,  I  remembered  that  I  had 
often  observed  that,  where  the  water  had 
run  out  from  under  ice,  or  where  a  great 
bubble  of  air  had  got  in,  the  ice  generally 
looked  white ;  but  I  could  not  think  of  any 
reason  why  it  should  be  so.  I  accordingly 
thought  I  would  ask  the  master  of  our 
school. 

"  When  I  first  asked  him,  he  said  that  he 
had  never  thought  of  the  subject  before,  and 
was  not  prepared  to  express  an  opinion ;  but 
he  said  he  would  think  of  it,  and  look 
into  some  of  his  books,  and  tell  me  the 
next  day.  So  the  next  day  I  went  to  him 
again ;  and  he  said  that  he  believed  the  rea 
son  was,  that  when  water  was  under  ice,  and 
in  contact  with  the  under  surface  of  it,  the 
light  from  above  passed  down  through  into 
the  water;  but  when  there  was  air  below, 
then  the  light  from  above,  when  it  got  to 
the  lower  surface  of  the  ice,  was  reflected, 
that  is,  turned  back,  and  the  light  thus  re- 


J  78  ROLLO'S    CORRESPONDENCE. 

fleeted  made  an  appearance  of  whiteness. 
That  is  what  he  said.  I  did  not  understand 
it  very  well ;  but  he  said  I  should  under 
stand  it  better  when  I  should  come  to  study 
optics. 

"  I  asked  him  what  optics  was,  and  he 
said  it  was  the  science  that  related  to  light 
and  colors.  I  asked  him  how  soon  I  should 
study  it,  and  he  said,  not  for  some  time 
yet,  because  I  did  not  know  algebra  and  ge 
ometry.  I  have  begun  geometry  already, 
though  I  don't  see  what  it  has  to  do  with 
light  and  colors. 

"  Good  by. 

"CHARLES." 


LETTER  V.  —  Rollo  to  Charles. 

"  Monday  Morning. 

"  Dear  Charles 

"  When  we  went  down,  on  Saturday, 
to  try  our  ice,  we  had  a  fine  time.  Jonas 
went  with  me.  When  we  got  pretty  near 
the  edge  of  the  ice,  Jonas  stopped,  and  said, 
'  Now  I  must  call  for  the  ferryman.7  Then 
he  called  out,  in  a  loud  voice, 
'•  ;  Ferry 5  ahoi !  ferry,  ahoi ! ' 


CHARLES.  179 

c;  Then   he  answered  himself  in  another 

voice,  as  if  it  was  somebody  at  a  great  dis- 

tunae  calling  out  to  him  in  reply, 
"  '  The  ferry  is  shut  up.' 
"  '  How,  then,  shall  I  get  across  the  river  ?  ' 
u  •  You  must  come  across  on  the  bridge.' 
"  i  Who  is  building  this  bridge  ? ' 
"'Captain  Jack  Frost?' 
"  'And  who  is  Captain  Jack  Frost?' 
•' '  He  is  a  great  bridge  builder.' 
"  Then  Jonas  began  to  pretend  to  talk  to 

Captain  Jack  Frost. 

"  '  How  do  you  do,  Captain  Jack  Frost  ? ' 

said  he  ;  *  I  am  very  glad  to  see  you  building 

a  bridge  here.' 

•c '  Yes,  I  have  got  one  begun.' 

"  '  It  is  not  finished,  then,  yet  ? ' 

"  '  No,  I  have  not  finished  it  yet ;  I  am  at 

work  upon  it.' 

"  'What  are  you  doing  to  it  now? ' 

"  l  O,  I'm  strengthening  it  underneath  ? ' 

"  '  Do  you  think  it  will  bear  this  boy,  here, 

and  me,  to  go  across  on  it  ? ' 

"  'Why,  yes,  I  rather  think  it  will.' 

"  Then  Jonas  began  to  go  cautiously  upon 

the  ice,  and  it  began  to  crack  j  but  Jonas  did 

not  seem  to  mind  the  cracking,  t  it  went  on 


180          HOLLO'S  CORRESPONDENCE. 

farther  and  farther,  and  presently  it  cracked 
a  good  deal.  Then  Jonas  stopped,  and  said, 

"  '  Captain  Jack  Frost,  'seems  to  me  your 
work  isn't  strong.' 

"  '  Why,  I  told  you  it  was  not  finished.' 

"  '  Suppose  it  breaks  through,  and  I  get 
in,  will  you  pay  all  the  damages  ? ' 

"  'No,  indeed;  nothing  like  that.' 

"  '  What  shall  you  do,  then  ? ' 

"  '  I  shall  bite  your  toes  in  the  water  till 
they  ache  well.' 

" '  Then  I  had  better  be  pretty  careful.' 

"  However,  Jonas  told  me  to  come  on,  and 
I  did.  It  bore  me  rather  better  than  it  did 
Jonas.  In  fact,  Jonas  said  that  the  cracking 
was  not  owing  altogether  to  the  weakness  of 
the  ice,  but  to  its  gradually  settling,  as  the 
water  subsided.  He  helped  me  put  on  my 
skates,  and  then  he  went  sliding  about. 

"  We  followed  the  ice  along  on  the  inter 
val  until  we  came  to  where  it  passed  under 
a  high  bank  overhung  with  trees.  I  skated, 
and  Jonas  ran  along  by  my  side.  He  could 
run  and  slide  as  fast  as  I  could  skate.  We 
found  some  beautiful,  round,  white  spots  in 
the  ice,  —  perfectly  round,  and  as  while  as 
silver.  I  asked  Jon^s  what  they  were,  and 


CHARLES.  181 

he  said  lie  supposed  it  must  be  Captain  Jack 
Fros'.'s  money.  But  afterwards  I  found  out 
what  they  really  were  ;  for,  as  I  was  looking 
down  through  some  very  clear  ice,  I  saw  a 
little  stream  of  bubbles  come  up  from  under 
an  old  log  on  the  bottom.  The  bubbles  rose 
until  they  reached  the  under  side  of  the  ice, 
and  there  they  had  to  stop,  for,  of  course, 
they  could  not  rise  any  higher  ;  but  they  be 
gan  to  run  along  under  the  ice  towards  Jo 
nas.  They  made  round,  white  spots,  just 
like  those  we  had  seen  before. 

"  '  That's  strange,'  said  I ;  what  is  the  rea 
son  they  move  off  that  way,  Jonas  ? ' 

"  '  That  must  be  up,'  said  Jonas. 

"'Up?'  said  I;  I  did  not  know  what 
Jonas  could  mean. 

"'Yes.'  he  said,  'up.  Bubbles  always 
run  up ;  and  so,  when  I  see  them  moving 
along  the  under  side  of  the  ice,  I  know  the 
ice  must  lie  sloping  upwards  a  little  in  the 
direction  that  the  bubbles  go.' 

"  The  bubbles  did  not  go  very  far  ;  they 
got  caught  against  some  blades  of  grass ;  but 
we  looked  along  in  the  direction  they  were 
moving  in,  and  we  found  quite  a  large  bulge 
in  the  ice.  It  was  where  the  ice  rested  on  the 
16 


104  HOLLO'S    CORRESPONDENCE. 

end  of  a  log  ;  and  so,  when  the  water  settledj 
it  bulged  it  up  in  that  place,  and  so  the  bub 
bles  ran  up  the  slope  upon  the  under  side  of 
the  i^, 

"  Good  by. 

"  ROLLO." 


183 


ADVICE. 

LETTER  I.  —  Rollo  to  his  Father. 

"  Saturday,  Jan  1. 

"  Dear  Father, 

"  This  is  New  Year's ;  and  I  send 
you,  in  this  letter,  a  little  pen-wiper  for  a 
new  year's  present.  It  is  for  you  to  keep  ir. 
the  little  drawer  in  your  desk,  so  that  you 
need  not  take  so  much  trouble  to  find  a  piece 
of  paper  always,  when  you  want  to  wipe 
your  pen.  Mary  showed  me  how  to  make 
it,  and  mother  gave  me  the  silk  for  the 
leaves. 

"  I  wish  you  would  be  kind  enough  to 
write  me  a  letter,  sometime,  or  at  least  a 
note.  Mother  has  written  me  a  good  many 
letters.  Perhaps,  if  you  have  not  got  any 
thing  else  to  say,  you  might  give  me  some 
advice.  I  should  like  a  letter  of  advice  very 
much. 

"  Very  affectionately,  your  son, 

"  ROLLO." 


184 

LETTER  II.  —  Rollo' s  Father  to  Rollo. 

^  Jan.  12. 

"  Dear  Rollo, 

"  You  know  I  have  been  very  busy 
lately,  and  I  have  not  been  able  before  this  to 
answer  your  little  note,  though  I  have  been 
intending  to  write  you  a  letter  of  advice, 
according  to  your  request.  I,  however,  regret 
this  the  less,  for  now  I  can  write  it  on  your 
birth-day,  and  that  will  be  as  well  as  if  it  had 
been  written  at  New  Year's.  To-day,  you 
are  ten  years  old. 

"  In  the  first  place,  I  thank  you  very  much 
for  the  pen-wiper.  It  will  be  very  convenient 
for  me  indeed,  and  I  shall  often  think  of  you 
when  I  am  using  it.  I  do  not  see,  however, 
that  I  have  now  any  thing  to  give  you  in  re 
turn  ,  except  some  of  the  advice  you  asked  me 
for  ;  but  I  can  give  you  plenty  of  that.  For, 
as  this  is  a  very  important  birth-day  of  yours, 
and  as  I  am  at  leisure  this  evening,  I  am  go 
ing  to  write  you  a  pretty  long  letter. 

"I  say  this  is  an  important  birth-day  of 
yours  ;  but  perhaps  you  have  never  supposed 
that  one  birth-day  is  any  more  important  than 
another.  The  circumstance  which  leads  me 
to  consider  this  peculiarly  important,  is,  that 


ADVICE.  185 

it  is  the  commencement  of  your  second  decade. 
A  decade   of  years   is  a  period  of  ten  years. 
You  have   completed  one  decade,  and   now 
commence  another.     And  the  one  which  you 
now  commence  is  probably  the  most  important 
of  all  the  decades  of  life  ;  that  is,  your  char 
acter  and  happiness  for  the  rest  of  life  depend 
more  upon  it  than  upon  any  other.     Hitherto 
you  have  been  merely  a  boy.     Now,  although 
you  will  continue  for  some  time  longer  to  be 
a  boy,  you  are  nevertheless  beginning  to  form 
the  character  of  the  man.     A  child  spends 
only   two   decades   under    his   father's   care. 
One  of  yours  is  already  gone;  —  and  now  1 
see  very  clearly  that   your  whole   character, 
your  standing   in  life,  your  happiness,  youi 
usefulness,   every    thing    depends    upon    the 
means  of  improvement  which  I  shall  provide 
for  you  for  the  ten  years   to   come,  and   the 
manner  in  which  you  avail  yourself  of  them. 
I  have  been  thinking  of  the  subject  myself, 
and  have  resolved  to  do  the  best  that  I  can,  to 
furnish  you  with  the  facilities  for  moral  and 
intellectual  progress  ;  —  and  I  want  you  to  see 
the  subject  in  the  same  light  that  I  do,  and  so 
do  the  best  that  you  can  to   improve  them. 
For,  if  either  of  us  fail  to  do  so,  when  this 
h*  16* 


HOLLO'S  CORRESPONDENCE. 


decade  is  once  passed,  it  will  be  forever  too 
late  to  repair  the  injury.  I  am  going  to  give 
you  advice  in  respect  to  three  particulars. 

1.  Your  Studies.  —  During  the  ten  years 
now  past,  you  have  laid  a  foundation  for 
future  improvement,  and  that  is  all.  You 
have  learned  to  read,  and  write,  and  spell,  and 
to  calculate  in  figures.  These  attainments 
are  the  instruments  with  which  you  are  now 
going  on  to  acquire  knowledge.  Hereafter, 
you  will  have  to  study  more  regularly  and 
systematically  than  you  have  done.  We  do 
not  confine  a  young  child  very  closely  to 
study,  because  we  wish  his  health  and 
strength  to  become  firmly  established  ;  and 
this  can  be  effected  only  by  a  good  deal  of 
exercise  in  the  open  air.  But  henceforth  I 
shall  make  arrangements  for  you  to  study 
with  more  regularity  and  system  than  you 
have  done,  both  at  home  and  in  the  schools 
that  you  will  be  sent  to.  And  you  must  not 
expect  that  these  studies  will  always  be  in 
teresting  or  agreeable.  It  is  true  that,  in 
advancing  in  knowledge,  we  find,  in  general, 
that  our  progress  becomes  more  and  more 
easy  and  pleasant,  as  we  go  on  ;  and  there  is, 
perhaps,  no  part  of  one's  education  more  irk- 


ADVICE. 


187 


some  than  the  very  beginning  of  it,  —  the 
learning  of  the  ABC.  Still  your  studies  will 
riot  yet  be  alluring  enough  to  lead  you  to  go 
forward  efficiently  of  your  own  accord.  You 
will  get  tired  of  them  a  great  many  times  ; 
out  still  you  must  persevere.  You  must  not 
*eel  discouraged  because  you  are  tired  of 
them  ;  but  press  on.  Acquire  knowledge  as 
fast  at>  you  can,  and  lay  broad  and  deep 
foundations  for  future  acquisitions.  Knowl 
edge  will  be  more  valuable  to  you  than  any 
other  woildly  advantage  which  you  can  pos 
sess.  Knowledge,  of  the  right  kind,  will 
always  command  subsistence,  respect,  influ 
ence,  and  honor.  And  it  is  a  very  safe  pos 
session.  Thioves  cannot  steal  it  ;  fire  can 
not  burn  it ;  storms  at  sea  cannot  sink  it. 
Men  cannot  dtprive  you  of  it  in  any  way. 
God  only  can  take  it  away  from  you  by  bod 
ily  or  mental  disease.  I  hope,  then,  that,  for 
the  ten  years  to  come,  you  will  cooperate 
pleasantly  and  }jef«everingly  with  me,  in 
my  efforts  to  store  your  mind  with  useful 
knowledge. 

2.  Manners. — I  v^ant  to  have  you  ac 
quire,  during  the  nevt  ten  years,  not  only  the 
Knowledge  of  a  scholar,  but  the  manners  of 


188 

a  gentleman.  A  gentleman  is  one  whose 
manners  and  habits  are  such  as  tend  to  pro 
mote  the  happiness  of  those  who  have  inter 
course  with  him.  Some  persons  contrive  to 
make  those  around  them  feel  uncomfortable 
or  unhappy,  by  neglecting  them,  or  not 
showing  proper  regard  to  their  wishes  or 
feelings,  or  saying  unkind  or  disagreeable 
things,  or  being  rude  or  noisy,  or  in  any  way 
unpleasant  in  manners.  Others  are  so  kind, 
and  attentive,  and  gentle,  and  unassuming, 
that  their  very  appearance  and  address  give 
pleasure.  This  is  being  gentlemanly.  Now, 
perhaps,  the  best  period  of  life  for  the  forma 
tion  of  gentlemanly  manners  and  habits,  is 
the  very  period  which  you  are  now  entering 
upon,  viz.,  the  second  ten  years  of  life.  So 
that  I  hope  you  will  now  pay  more  strict  and 
careful  attention  than  ever  before  to  this  sub 
ject,  so  as  to  form  and  fix  the  very  best  of 
manners  and  habits,  and  thus  carry  with 
you,  and  diffuse  around  you,  as  you  go  "on 
through  life,  a  constant  atmosphere  of  en 
joyment. 

3.  Character.  — Your  moral  and  religious 
feelings  and  character  will  probably  be  fixed 
during  the  next  ten  years.  Shall  you  form 


ADVICE.  189 

the  habit  of  humbly  looking  to  God,  through 
the  Savior,  for  the  forgiveness  of  your  sins, 
and  for  your  future  protection,  and  try  to  live 
in  obedience  to  his  commands,  —  denying 
yourself  every  improper  pleasure,  and  seeking 
the  happiness  of  others  ?  Or  shall  you  live 
without  God  in  the  world,  and  be  left  to 
wander  away  into  the  paths  of  sin  and  vice  ? 
This  great  question  you  will  begin  now  to 
settle ;  and  it  will,  probably,  be  finally  set 
tled  before  this  ten  years  have  passed  away. 
We  try  to  train  you  up  in  the  fear  of  God, 
and  in  habits  of  obedience  to  his  commands. 
It  gives  us  great  pleasure  to  perceive  that 
you  generally  cooperate  with  us  in  these  ef 
forts.  We  hope  you  will  do  so  more  and 
more  ;  so  that,  when  this  next  ten  years  are 
gone,  we  can  see  that  you  are  growing  up  to 
be  a  well-educated,  gentlemanly,  virtuous, 
and  pious  man. 
"I  am 

"  Yours,  very  affectionately. 

"  FATHKK-'* 


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